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ne  Mythology  of  Vergil's 
Aeneid  According 
To  Servius 


BY 


JOHN    PRENTICE    TAYLOR,  B.D.,  Ph.D. 


■ 


EXCHANGE 


The  Mythology  of  Vergil's 

Aeneid  According 

To  Servius 


BY 


JOHN     PRENTICE    TAYLOR,   B.D.,  PhD 


This  rHESis  has  been  accepted  b\  the  Graduate  School 
of  New  York  University,  in  partial  fulfillment  of  the 
requirements  for  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy.  1917. 


TO 

Prof    Ernest   Gottlieb  Sihler,   Ph.D.,   Litt.D. 

with  warmest  gratitude 

a no   regard 


The   Mythology  of  Vergil's  Aeneid 
According  to  Servius. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter   I  -  1 

Servius.  the  man:  his  work. 

His  position  in  time  ;  his  profession,  a  grammaticus. 

His  religion,  a  loving  attachment  to  the  old  paganism,  now  under 

the  ban  and  almost  passed  away. 
His   Great  Work,   the   Commentory   on   Vergil 
His   competence.     Macrobius. 
Our  present   text 

Chapter   II  -  -  4 

The    Method  of  Servius. 

Twofold  interest  discernible. 

(a)  The  simple  instruction  of  Roman  schoolboys  as  to  points 
of  syntax,  fables  etc. 

(a)  The  elucidation  of  problems  of  scholarship,  e.  g..  the  inter- 
pretations of  myths  etc.  according  to  the  several  schools, 
the  physici,   mathematici,  etc 

His  handling  of  the  older  authorities,  as   Donatus,  for  instance. 

Chapter   III  -  -  6 

The  Roman  mythology  in  great  degree  derived  from  the  Greeks: 
hardly  more  than  the  adaptation  of  the  Greek  pantheon. 
The  slender  character  of  the  uncorrupted  elements  of  Italic  origin 
which  persisted  in  the  Roman  religion  to  later  historical  times. 
The  di   indigetos  and   <li   rhagni. 

Chapter   IV  -  8 

The  Olympian  or  deities  of  the  highest  importance.  Zeus 
(Iuppiter).  Hera  (Iuno),  Poseidon  (Neptune)  Demeter,  (Ceres). 
\pollo.  Artemis  (Diana)  Hephaestos  (Vulcan),  Pallas  Athene 
(Minerva),  Ares  (Mars).  Aphrodite  (Venus).  Hermes  (Mercury), 
Hestia    (Vesta) 

Chapter   V  -  32 

Minor   Deities. 
-Saturnus.   Silvanus,    Bona    Dea.    Faunus,-  Bacchus,  -Lupido,  .Janus 
.Atlas,  'Furiae    (Erinyes) -Cybele    (Magna    mater    Idaea)    Ins.-Di 
rpenates..I.ares.    Tuturna.   Dis   pater   and    the    Tnferi 


3"T  iK  ^ 


:j 


Chapter   VI  -  49 

The    demigods,    heroes    who  "after   apotheosis    became    objects    of 
Roman    worship. 

Chapter  VII  -  -  57 

Certain  subjects  not  touched  in  the  foregoing  chapters;  but  which 

can  hardly  be  omitted  from  a  treatise  of  this  kind. 

The  Sibyl:  The  Fates 

List    of    important    legends    which    remain    untreated    but    which 

should   be   mentioned. 

Brief   summary   and   conclusion. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Augustim  de  Civitate  Dei.  Dombart.     2  vols.     Leipzig,  1908. 

Cicero,  de  Natura  Deorum,  etc.     Teubner  texts. 

Gellius,  Noctes  Atticae.     M.  Hertz.     Berlin,  1883. 

Cornutus,  de  Natura  Deorum.     Teubner  text. 

Macrobius.     Eyssenhardt.     Teubner  text.     Leipzig,  1888. 

Valerius  Maximus.     C.  Kempf.     Teubner  text.     Leipzig,  1888. 

Diogenis  Laertii,  Vita  Philosophorum.     Didot.     Paris,  1878. 

Servius'   Commentary  on   Vergil's   Aeneid.     Thilo.     2  vols.   Teubner, 

1884. 
Ovidius  Naso,  Fasti,  etc.    Teubner  texts.     Leipzig,  1881. 


SPECIAL  MONOGRAPHS  ON  SERVIUS. 

Serviana.     Dr.  E.  G.  Sihler.     Am.  Jrnl.  Philol.     Jan.,  1910, 
Quaestiones  Servianae.     G.  Thilo.     Halle,  1867.     Lat.  Diss.  6. 
Quaestiones  Servianae.     Moeller.     Kiel,  1892.     Lat.  Diss.,  10. 
Servius  on  the  Tropes  and  Figures  of  Vergil.     Moore.    Lat.  Diss.,  10. 
Rites  and  Ritual  Acts,  etc.     Holstein.     Doctor's  Thesis.     1915. 


WORKS  ON  CLASSICAL  MYTHOLOGY  AND 
RELATED  THEMES. 

A  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Antiquities.     Anthon-Smith. 
A  New  Classical  Dictionary.     Anthon-Smith. 

Buchanan,  C.  F.  H.  Epitheta  Deorum  quae  apud  poetas  Graecos  legun- 
tur.      Leipzig,  1893. 

Carter,  J  B.  The  Religion  of  Numa.  London,  1906. 
Religious  Life  of  Ancient  Rome.  1911. 
De  Deorum  Romanorum  Cognominibus-.     Leipzig,  189X. 

Fairbanks,  Arthur      The  Mythology  of  Greece  and  Rome.     New  York. 

1907 


Fowler,  W    Warde      The  Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People, 

London,  1911. 

Roman  Festivals  of  the  Period  of  the  Republic. 
London. 

Roman  Ideas  of  Deity  in  the  Last  Century  be- 
fore the  Christian  Era.     London,  1914. 

Frazer,  James  G.     The  Golden  Bough.     7  parts.     London. 
Fox.  William  Sherwood.     The  Mythology  of  all  Nations  series.     Vol. 

I.,  Greece  and  Rome.     Boston,  1915. 

Gruppe      Die  Griechische  Kulte  und  Mythen.     Leipzig,  1887. 

Griechische   Mythologie   und   Religionsgeschichte.       2    vols. 
Munich,   1906. 

Pauly-Wissowa.     Real  Encyclopedic. 

Preller,  Robart.     Griechische  Mythologie.     Vol.  I.     Berlin,  1894. 

I 'roller.    Jordan.      Romische    Mythologie.      Third    Edition.      2     vols 

1881,    1883. 
History  of  the  Romans.     Merivale.     New  York,  1866. 
History  of  Rome.     Theodor  Mommsen.     New  York,  1803. 
Hastings,  James.     Extra  vol.  of  his  Bible  Dictionary.    New  York.  1904. 
Murray.  A.  S.     A  Manual  of  Mythology.     New  York,  1888. 
Hastings,  James.     Dictionary  of  Religion  and  Ethics.     New  York, 
^r'.e-gelsbach.     Homerische  Theologie.     Nuremberg,  1857. 

Nachhomerische  Theologie.     Nuremberg,  1857. 

RoRscher,    W.    H.    Ausfuehrliches   Lexicon   der   Griechischen    und    Roein- 
ischen    Mythologie.       Leipsig,     1887-1892. 

Ritich.     Opuscula.  I,  II,  III,  IV,  V. 

Sihler,  Dr.  E.  G.     Testimonium  Animae.     New  York,  1908. 

Macrobius.  The  Dusk  of  the  Gods.  Extract  from 
the  proceedings  of  the  American  Philological  As- 
sociation.    Vol.  XL.     1910. 

Sandys.     A  Companion  to  Latin  Studies.     Cambridge,  1910. 
Seymour,  T.  D.     Life  in  the  Homeric  Age.     New  York,  1907. 
Teuffel's  History  of  Roman  Literature.     Eng.  Trans.     London.  190(1. 
(Jsener,  H.     Epicurea.     Leipzig,  1887. 
Usener.     Goetternamen.      Bonn,    1896 

Windelband,  W.     A  History  of  Philosophy.     Eng.  Trans.     New    York, 
1910. 

Weber.     History  of  Philosophy.     Eng.  Trans.     New  York,  1908. 
Wissowa,  Georg.     Religion  und  Kultus  der  Roemer.     Munschen,  191. 
teller.    E.      Epicureans.    Stoics   and    Sceptics.      Eng.    Trans.      London 
1870 


INTRODUCTION. 
THE  DELIMITATION  OE  THE  SUBJECT. 


THE  MYTHOLOGY   OF  VERGIL   ACCORDING  TO 

SERVIUS 

Corrigenda 

Page  I,  line  8,  read  "Atice"  for  "Acticc." 

Page  Q.  second   line   from   the  bottom,  read   "boy"   for   "bay." 

Page   15,  line  24,   read  "filler"  for  "filias." 

Page  20,  line  8,  read  "discessit"  for  "dicessit." 

Page  21,  line  8,   read  "Diana  Iovis  cf  Latoncc"   for  "Diani  lovis,  etc." 

Page  27,  line  3,  read  "semper"  for  "sniper." 

line  16,  read  "Equestris"  for  "Equester." 

line  18,  read  "i\v/"   for  "est." 
Page  30,  line  1=,,  read   "virga"   for   "vinga." 
Page  .55,  line   16,  read  " huelhe"  for  "puella." 
Page  5_',   line   12,  read    "tantun"    for    "tan'itm." 
Page  53,  line     8,  read    "Pinariorum"   for   "Pinaiorwm." 
Page  56,  last    line,    read    "dens"    for    "dels." 
I '.mr  58,  line     2,   read   (ri.or    for   h-top- 


To  sum  up :  No  claim  is  made  to  cover  all  of  mythology  which 
the  Greeks  and  Romans  knew,  but  only  a  section  in  which  appear 
objects  of  Roman  worship  or  religious  content. 


INTRODUCTION. 

THE  DELIMITATION  OE  THE  SUBJECT. 

The  purpose  of  the  present  thesis  is  not  to  give  a  comprehen- 
sive survey  of  Greek  and  Roman  Mythology.  Works  on  that 
general  theme  exist  in  *  sufficient  numbers  and  of  a  scholarship 
which  seems  to  leave  little  to  be  desired. 

I  shall  limit  myself  as  closely  as  possible  to  the  elucidations  of 
Servius  in  his  comments  upon  the  great  personages  and  ideas 
of  the  Greek  and  Roman  Mythology  as  they  appear  in  his  com- 
mentary on  the  Aeneid  of  Vergil. 

It  is  not  my  aim  to  become  an  interpreter  of.  the  great  gram- 
maticus ;  but  rather  to  set  forth  his  own  narrative  and  exegeses 
of  the  various  myths  and  characters  which  he  deemed  it  worth 
while  to  touch  upon. 

Thus,  while  there  may  be  occasions  when  reference  might  prof- 
itably be  made  to  other  contemporary  or  later  interpreters,  they 
will  prove  comparatively  few  and  Servius  will  be  permitted  to 
speak  for  himself  without  the  invocation  of  a  mass  of  comment 
purely  eruditional  and  in  the  main  belonging  to  much  later  times. 

Further,  it  has  seemed  best  to  confine  this  treatment  to  those 
personages,  whether  gods  or  heroes,  who  became  actual  objects 
of  worship  at  some  time  or  other.  Hence  some  of  the  hero-tales 
to  which  Servius  refers  will  not  be  found  here,  since  many  of 
the  heroes  remain  of  purely  human  interest  in  their  deeds  and 
relationships. 

To  sum  up :  No  claim  is  made  to  cover  all  of  mythology  which 
the  Greeks  and  Romans  knew,  but  only  a  section  in  which  appear 
objects  of  Roman  worship  or  religious  content. 


CHAPTER  J. 

SERVIUS;    THE  MAN  AND  HIS  WORK 

Before  taking  up  the  more  direct  consideration  of  the  theme 
of  this  chapter,  it  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  remind  ourselves  of 
the  occasion  and  significance  of  the  great  Epic  to  the  elucidation 
of  which  we  are  indebted  for  the  great  commentary  to  which  our 
studies  are  directed. 

Servius  himself  gives  us  the  twofold  purpose  with  which  the 
Mant  uan  poet  wrote :  "intentio  Vergili  haec  est,  Homerum  imi- 
tari  et  Angitstiirn  laudarc,  a  parcntibus  namque  est  filius  Aetiae, 
quae  nata  est  de  Iulia,  s  or  ore  Caesar  is,  Iulius  autem  Caesar  ab 
Iulo  Aeneae  originem  ducit,  ut  confirmat  ipse  Vergilius  a  magno 
demissum  nomen  Iulo"  (Introduction  to  the  Aeneid).  In  VI 
752  Servius  represents  Anchises  as  introducing  the  doctrine  of 
the  return  of  the  souls  of  the  dead  into  bodies  and  so  to  the 
earthly  life  ut  celebret  Roman os  et  praccipue  Augustum. 

Vergil  could  not  imitate  Homer  without  revealing  a  profound 
religious  concern,  for  Homer  is  nothing  if  not  religious,  nor  could 
he  properly  honor  Augustus  unless  he  were  to  show  that  he  oc- 
cupied his  position  of  power  with  the  consent  and  approval  of 
the  gods. 

Vergil's  interest  was  doubtless,  in  a  large  degree,  apologetic. 
He  sought  to  win  over  to  the  cause  of  Augustus  any  of  the  old 
republican  spirits,  who  might  be  grieving  at  the  passing  of  the 
elder  time  of  political  liberty. 

With  this  in  view  he  uses  his  talents  to  exalt  his  great  friend 
and  patron,  the  ruling  Augustus,  and  seeks  to  inspire  in  his  fel- 
low-countrymen, who  might  read  his  poem,  a  pride  in,  and  a 
reverence  for  that  mighty  Rome,  which  from  beginnings  so  insig- 
nificant had  risen  to  the  place  of  world-wide  dominion. 

Thus  he  emphasizes  those  elements  which  always  and  every- 
where contribute  most  largely  to  the  growth  of  states,  among 
which  religious  beliefs  and  convictions  play  a  great  part. 

The  belief  that  the  originators  of  the  state  derived  their  origin 
from  divine  beings ;  that  their  authority  is  thus  more  than  that 
of  merely  human  leaders ;  that  their  descendants  were  the  pro- 
teges of  some  powerful  deity,  whose  purpose  involved  their  na- 
tional greatness ;  that  individual  leaders  enjoyed  peculiar  divine 
protection  and  guidance,  through  which  they  won  victory  for 
themselves  and  renown  for  their  people :  that  the  very  life  of  the 


state  depended  upon  learning  and  obeying  the  divine  will  at  any 
given  time,  especially  in  an  hour  of  crisis ;  all  these  conceptions 
and  more  of  the  same  order,  rendered  the  writing  of  an  epic  such 
as  the  Aeneid  a  task  no  less  religious  than  literary. 

To  understand,  then,  this  epic  portrayal  of  the  whole  course 
of  Roman  history,  from  the  settlement  of  Aeneas  in  Italy  after 
his  wanderings  to  the  very  time  of  the  poet  himself  (cf.  VI  752), 
an  acquaintance  with  the  gods  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  mythol- 
ogy is  a  primary  requisite ;  and  this  every  school-boy  of  the  Au- 
gustan Age  would  possess.  But  with  the  victory  of  Christianity 
and  the  decadence  of  paganism,  these  stories  of  gods  and  heroes 
were  in  peril  of  being  lost;  hence  their  preservation,  we  may  be 
sure,  was  among  the  most  important  considerations  which  sum- 
moned Servius  to  his  ambitious  task. 

It  seems  reasonable  to  believe  that  the  great  grammaticus  Ser- 
vius was  born  not  far  from  350  A.D.  and  that  he  was  thus  con- 
temporaneous with  the  great  Christian  Father  Augustine  (b.  354 
A.D.).  We  know  very  little  of  him  save  that  he  was  a  learned 
grammaticus  of  high  repute  at  Rome.  Macrobius  in  his  Satur- 
nalia introduces  Servius  as  one  of  the  famous  company  who  are 
represented  as  meeting  at  the  house  of  Praetextatus  first,  dur- 
ing the  period  of  the  Saturnalia  and  passing  their  time  in  dis- 
cussing topics  of  interest  to  the  learned  participants  who,  at  the 
same  time,  were  lovers  of  the  older  pagan  faith. 

The  fact  that  Servius  is  introduced  among  such  names  as  Sym- 
macbus,  Praetextatus,  the  two  Albini,  and  Avienus,  reveals  the 
high  estimation  in  which  he  was  held  by  his  contemporaries. 

For  Macrobius'  judgment,  see  Sat.  I,  215  (p.  9,  Teubner  text)  : 
Servius  inter  grammaticos  doctorem  recens  professus,  iuxta  doc- 
trina  mirabilis  et  amabilis  vcrccundia     .... 

Sat.  VII,  1 1 :2  et  Disarms,  age,  Semi,  non  solum  adulescentium, 
qui  tibi  aequaevi  sunt,  sed  senum  quoque  omnium  doctissime, 
commascula  frontem,  et  sequestrata  verecundia  quam  in  te  facies 
rubore  indicat,  confer  nobiscum  libere,  quod  occurrerit,  inlerro- 
gationibus  tuis  non  minus  doctrinae  collaturus,  quam  si  aliis  con- 
sulentibus  ipse  respondeas. 

In  both  these  quotations  his  native  modesty  is  emphasized  to- 
gether with  his  vast  learning  which  seemed  so  utterly  at  his  dis- 
posal that  he  could  answer  any  questioner  at  once  and  without 
hesitation. 


Servius  evidently  remained  pagan  as  no  traces  of  Christian 
belief  appear  in  his  work.  Indeed  it  would  appear  that  he,  as 
we  said  above,  undertook  this  great  task  as  a  sort  of  labor  of 
love  toward  the  old  faith  to  which  he  held  (though  not  so  ar- 
dently as  Macrobius,  cf.  Shiler  Serviana,  p.  10)  and  which  he 
sought  to  preserve  at  least  in  record,  now  that  the  pagan  worship 
in  the  temples  had  been  put  under  the  ban  by  Theodosius  (A.D. 
381). 

He  was  a  Platonist  or  rather  a  Neo-platonist,  and  also  held 
the  doctrine  of  the  Spheres  and  other  Pythagorean  lore  which 
had  already  been  long  incorporated  with  Platonism  ( Sihler : 
Serviana). 

His  great  work  remains,  his  Commentarii  Vergilii,  to  which 
all  succeeding  students  of  Vergil  have  been  deeply  indebted. 
Servius  was  thoroughly  competent  for  his  task ;  he  was  a  mas- 
ter in  the  letters  of  Greece  and  Rome  in  every  field ;  his  thorough 
acquaintance  with  all  schools  of  interpretation  appears  on  every 
page ;  he  had  studied  most  carefully  the  older  commentators  in 
his  own  field,  e.g.,  Donatus,  but  is  himself  of  independent  spirit 
and  judgment,  not  hesitating  to  attack,  at  times  with  a  sneer  the 
older  masters. 

The  text  of  which  I  have  made  use  is  the  monumental  work 
of  Thilo  and  Hagen,  Leipzig  1881.  The  distinction  between  the 
original  Servius  and  the  "plenior"  is  not  observed  in  this  presen- 
tation, but  the  entire  text  is  made  the  basis  of  my  investigation. 

The  whole  matter  is  fully  discussed  in  the  preface  to  the 
Thilo  edition  and  demands  no  elucidation  here. 


CHAPTER  11. 
THE  METHOD  OF  SERV1US. 

Aside  from  the  main  purpose  which  he  had  in  the  rescue  from 
oblivion  of  the  elder  paganism,  its  deities  and  its  cultus,  Servius 
presents  us  with  a  twofold  interest  in  writing  his  commentary. 

First  he  wrote  having  in  mind  the  youths  who  might  study 
the  National  Epic,  and  for  whom  the  historical  and  mythological 
references,  as  well  as  matters  of  syntax,  prosody,  etc.,  would  have 
to  be  cleared  up.  So  we  find  him  narrating  god  and  hero  tales, 
some  of  them  as,  e.g.,  those  of  Hercules  Daedalus  and  Theseus, 
at  great  length. 

Secondly  he  would  furnish  the  grammatici  and  other  lovers  of 
Rome  in  its  literature,  history  and  religion,  in  so  far  as  they  were 
involved  in  Vergil's  poems,  with  a  complete  thesaurus  of  fact  and 
exegesis,  from  which  they  might  be  able  to  draw  whatever  would 
be  required  for  a  complete  understanding  of  the  poet. 

Well  has  it  been  inferred  that  Servius  was  more  than  a  mere 
man  of  learning;  that  he  was  one  to  whom  the  old  order  of  the 
Roman  ritual,  of  the  old  culture  of  certain  forms  of  Greek  phi- 
losophy were  dear  and  precious  (Sihler  Serviana,  p.  6,  Extract 
from  Volume  XXXI,  1.  The  American  Journal  of  Philology), 
and  all  this  he  sought  to  vitalize  to  the  earnest  student. 

For  it  was  for  men  of  mature  minds  who  sought  the  truth  un- 
derlying the  old  mythology  that  Servius  introduced  so  much  of 
eruditional  matter.  As  we  said,  he  was  a  Neo-platonist  to  whom 
the  emanistic  philosophy  presented  the  only  satisfactory  solution 
of  that  unity  of  the  universe  which  realized  itself  in  multiplicity 
and  variety. 

The  theocrasia  of  that  school  appears  constantly  on  his  pages. 
Cf.  Aen.  VI,  78,  where  Apollo,  Sol  and  Liber  are  reduced  to 
a  single  deity,  the  Sun. 

In  his  exegesis  of  the  myths  Servius  drew  upon  the  various 
schools  of  interpretation  ;  as  the  physici,  men  who  studied  natural 
philosophy  and  sought  to  explain  the  myths  in  accordance  with 
the  principles  of  physical  existence.  Cf.  Cic.  N.D.  XXX  83 
Non  pudct  physicum,  id  est  spcculatorem  et  venatoremque  naturae, 
etc.,  the  theologi,  the  poetae,  Homer,  Hesiod,  Orpheus,  etc. 
The  Euhemeristic  school,  who  derived  the  gods  from  men  who, 
in  their  lifetime,  had  been  great  kings  or  leaders,  and  who  after 
death  became  qrtds,  e.g.,  Zeus,  king  of  Crete  whose  grave  was 


s 


shown  to  the  interested  traveller.    The  mathematici  or  astrologers 
also  are  quoted  occasionally. 

Servius  makes  etymology  play  a  great  part  in  the  divine  names. 
Cf.  Cornutus  in  his  Theologia  Graeca. 

He  is  thoroughly  acquainted  with  all  the  systems  of  Greek  spec- 
ulation and  shows  that  Vergil  was  himself  inclined  to  favor  the 
school  of  Epicurus,  taught  as  he  had  been  by  Siro,  a  master  of 
that  sect.  His  own  Neo-platonism  appears  most  clearly  in  his  com- 
ments on  the  nature  of  the  soul,  metempsychosis,  and  the  life  af- 
ter death.     Cf.  especially  VI,  127  ff.  VI,  703  ff. 

Servius  is  a  scribe  who  makes  constant  use  of  ancient  authori- 
ties and  commentators,  some  of  whom  we  name:  Varro  is  his 
first  and  Nigidius  Figulus  his  second  authority,  and  there  are  many 
more.  Donatus,  the  master  of  St.  Jerome  and  a  great  commenta- 
tor on  Vergil,  he  uses  extensively,  nor  does  he  hesitate  to  criticize 
him,  sometimes  even  with  a  sneer,  nor  to  set  down  his  own  abso- 
lutely contradictory  opinions. 

He  introduces  his  authorities  often  without  naming  them  by 
>uch  phrases  as,  alii  dicunt,  sunt  qui,  etc.  His  purpose  is  evidently 
to  give  an  exhaustive  treatment  (cf.  some  of  the  more  thorough- 
going Biblical  scholars  of  our  time),  as  he  does  not  hesitate  to 
quote  opinions  diametrically  contrary  to  his  own. 

Nor  does  Servius  in  all  cases  insist  upon  a  choice  between  con- 
flicting views,  often  leaving  his  reader  without  any  means  to  de- 
termine what  he  himself  thought,  and  perhaps  for  the  very  good 
reason  that  he  could  not  decide. 

His  exegesis  Servius  is  fond  of  introducing  by  such  formulas 
as  "fingitur,"  "ideo  fingitur  quod"  or  similar  expressions,  thus  ap- 
parently indicating  his  belief  that  the  fables  were  deliberate  in- 
ventions due  to  perfectly  reasoned  efforts  to  symbolize  physical 
phenomena  (cf.  VIII  389)  ;  rather  than  that  the  myths  themselves 
were  the  originals  upon  which  at  a  later  and  philosophic  age  the 
explanations  grew  up. 

On  the  whole  we  are  justified  in  saying  that  Servius  reveals  the 
method  of  the  true  scholar,  to  whom  no  toil  is  too  burdensome, 
no  detail  too  insignificant  to  engage  his  enthusiastic  interest,  pro- 
vided he  might  gain  for  himself,  and  rescue  for  his  readers  a  closer 
view  of  the  subject  to  the  elucidation  of  which  he  had  so  utterly 
devoted  himself 


CHAPTER  III. 

In  strict  accuracy  we  can  hardly  speak  of  a  Roman  mythology 
for,  as  Dr.  Warde  Fowler  justly  says,  "the  early  Romans  were 
destitute  of  mythological  fancy";    they  were  of  a  stern,  grave 
and  robust  character,  intensely  practical  in  their  interests  and  lack- 
ing in  imagination.    But  they  were  not  without  deep  religious  feel 
ings  and  early  possessed  both  relig:ous  convictions  and  cultus,  truly 
of  a  very  simple,  and  we  might  almost  dare  to  say  of  a  spiritual 
character,  if  worshipping  without  images  marks  any  difference  be 
tween  a  spiritual  and  a  sensuous  religion,  where  constant  appeal 
is  made  to  the  physical  senses  through  the  representation  of  the 
gods  by  images  and  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  elaborate  ritual. 

We  are  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  study  of  the  Roman  religion 
from  the  fact  that  we  have  no  literature  contemporaneous  with 
its  rise,  and  must,  therefore,  in  the  main  see  through  the  eyes  of 
men  of  much  later  times.  It  is  true  we  have  the  Calendar  of  Numa . 
and  some  inscriptions  to  aid  us ;  but  these  are  of  value  largely 
because  of  the  inferences  we  are  able  to  draw,  rather  than  from 
any  clear  statements  of  their  own. 

Because  the  Greek  influence  came  to  be  as  great  in  the  realm 
of  religion  as  in  that  of  literature,  the  modern  student,  it  has  been 
truly  said,  sees  all  things  through  a  "Hellenistic  mist."  Thus  the 
inferences  to  be  drawn  from  the  writings  of  such  men  as  Varro. 
Ovid  and  others,  must  be  used  with  extreme  caution  in  seeking 
to  determine  the  elements  of  the  early  religion  of  Rome :  for  they 
speak  of  a  much  later  period  when  the  transforming  touch  of  the 
Greeks  had  been  laid  upon  all  things  Roman,  so  far  as  literature 
and  religion  were  concerned. 

The  original  Italic  element  which  survived  to  later  times  seems 
to  have  been  very  slender  indeed.  So  far  back  as  we  can  go  the 
numina  appear  to  have  been  spirits  which  had  not  reached  the 
stage  of  clear-cut  personality.  The  adjectival  character  of  many 
of  their  appellations  would  suggest  this,  e.g.,  Neptunus,  Volturnus, 
Volcanus,  etc.  Cf .  Fowler  RERP.  and  Carter  "de  Deorum  Ro- 
manorum  cognominibus." 

The  whole  matter  is  summed  up  most  satisfactorily  in  a  quo- 
tation from  Aust's  book  on  the  Roman  Religion  as  given  by  Fowler 
RERP.,  p.  157.  "The  deities  of  Rome  were  deities  of  the  cult 
only.     They  had  no  human  form ;   they  are  not  the  human  heart 


with  its  virtues  and  vices.  They  had  no  intercourse  with  each 
other,  and  no  common  or  permanent  residence ;  they  enjoyed  no 
nectar  and  ambrosia  ....  they  had  no  children,  no  parental 
relation These  deities  never  became  independent  ex- 
istences, they  remain  cold,  colorless  conceptions,  numina  as  the 
Romans  called  them,  that  is  supernatural  beings  whose  existence 
only  betrays  itself  in  the  exercise  of  certain  powers." 

These  ancient  numina  under  the  influence  of  Greek  thought  and 
poetical  conceptions  became  identified  with  the  various  deities  of 
the  Greek  pantheon,  and  were  then  and  not  till  then,  conceived  as 
fully  constituted  persons  with  the  same  parts  and  passions  as  their 
human  worshippers. 

Perhaps  Vesta  and  Mars  among  the  greater  deities  remained 
-.trongly  Italic,  while  Janus,  Faunus,  Silvanus,  Ops,  Consus,  Iu- 
turna  kept  in  large  degree  their  own  native  characteristics,  though 
Faunus  became  identified  with  Arcadian  Pan. 

Servius  says  that  deus  and  dea  were  the  general  names  for  all 
deities,  deriving  deus  from  5scg,  i.e.,  fear,  since,  as  he  naively  says, 
all  religion  is  due  to  that  feeling. 

The  Magni  Di  were  by  some  identified  with  the  Penates  (q.v.), 
by  others  with  Jupiter,  Minerva  and  Mercury,  whom  Aeneas 
brought  from  Samothrace. 

The  Di  Indigites  appear  to  have  been  the  deities  worshipped  in 
the  Rome  of  the  four  regions,  at  the  time  of  Numa.  Wissowa 
makes  them  thirty-three  in  number. 

Servius  defines  them  in  his  note  on  XII  794. 
They  were  called  indigites  according  to  Lucretius  (II  650): 
quod  nullius  rei  egeant.  vcl  quod  nos  deorum  indigeamus  .... 
alii  patrios  deos  indigites  dici  dcbcre  tradunt,  alii  ab  invocatione 
indigites  dictos  volunt,  quod  'indigito'  est  precor  et  invoco.  (Cf. 
Mommsen  Hist.  Rome,  Vol.  I,  p.  213,  Eng.  Transl.)  vel  ccrte 
indigites  sunt  dii  ex  hominibus  facti,  et  dicti  indigetes  quasi  in 
diis  agentcs.  In  support  of  this  last  point  he  cites  the  manner  in 
which  Aeneas  was  made  an  object  of  worship  by  his  son  Ascanius. 
Inasmuch  as  the  Greek  deities  had  really  absorbed  the  Roman 
to  a  great  degree,  I  have  made  my  chapter  divisions  in  this  treat- 
ment with  the  Greek  pantheon  in  view,  i.e.,  I  first  treat  of  the 
Olympian  or  Greater  Divinities,  then  of  the  lesser  gods  and  god- 
desses, the  demigods  and  heroes  who  underwent  apotheosis  last. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
IUPPITER 

Jupiter  was  at  Rome  the  sky-god  as  in  Greece  and  other  Indo 
European  countries.  He  w.as  the  god  who  gave  rain  and  so  fer- 
tility. He  was  also  the  god  of  the  lightning  and  whatever  the 
heavenly  fire  touched  became  sacred  to  him.  As  king  of  gods  and 
men  he  was  the  god  of  battles  also,  and  received  various  epithets 
accordingly,  as  Feretrius,  Stator,  and  Victor.  He  was  called  Fi- 
dius  as  the  guardian  of  treaties  and  oaths. 

His  greatest  temple  as  King  was  that  of  the  Capitoline,  where 
he  was  worshipped  as  Iuppiter  Optimus  Maximus.  Here  the  laws 
were  kept  and  hither  triumphing  generals  came  to  render  thanks 
and  to  deposit  their  spoils  of  war. 

Jupiter  represented  the  unity  of  Rome,  but  it  was  not  till  his 
fuller  identification  with  the  Greek  Zeus  that  any  stories  of  his 
relations  to  men  on  the  human  plane,  e.g.,  his  human  marriages, 
gained  currency  at  Rome.  He  was,  Fairbanks  remarks,  never  so 
near  a  monotheistic  conception  as  was  Zeus. 

We  turn  to  Servius. 

The  birth  of  Iuppiter  is  narrated  in  III  104.  After  Saturn  had 
learned  from  the  oracle  that  he  was  to  have  a  son  who  might  drive 
him  from  his  kingdom  he  devoured  his  children  as  they  were  born 
by  his  wife  Rhea.  When  Iuppiter  appeared  she  was  so  captivated 
by  his  beauty  that  she  resolved  to  save  him.  Accordingly  she 
sent  him  away  to  Mount  Dicte  in  Crete  where  bees  fed  him,  and 
in  place  of  the  child  she  gave  Saturn  a  stone  wrapped  up  in  swad- 
dling clothes.  He  soon  learned  the  trick  and  began  a  search  for 
the  infant,  to  save  whom  Rhea  had  the  Curetes  and  Corbyantes 
keep  up  a  constant  din  with  their  cymbals  that  the  wailing  of 
Iuppiter  might  not  attract  the  attention  of  his  father  and  so  dis- 
cover his  whereabouts. 

RATIO.  Servius  now  explains  the  myth  according  to  the  Phys- 
ici :  ut  autcm  fingatur  Saturnus  filios  snos  comesse,  ratio  haec  est, 
quia  dicitnr  dens  esse  aeternitatis  et  saeculorum  saecula  autem 
annos  ex  se  natos  in  se  rcvolvunt:  unde  Graece  Koovog  quasi 
Xqovoc,   id  est  tempus,  dicitur. 

This  story  is  referred  to  again  in  IX  83. 

Juno  was  both  sister  and  wife  of  Iuppiter.  (Perhaps,  inciden- 
tally, we  are  here  given  to  know  that  the  myth  arose  at  a  time  when 
it  was  felt  to  be  no  immorality  that  a  sovereign  should  marry  his 
own  sister.)     See  I  47.  XII  830. 

8 


THE  RATIONALE  of  the  myth  Servius  gives  as  follows  . 
physici  lovem  aethcrcm,  id  est  igncm  volant  intellegi,  lunonem 
vere  acrcm,  et  quoniam  tcnuitatc  hacc  elementa  paria  sunt,  dixer- 
unt  esse  gcrmana,  sed  quoniam  Iuno,  hoc  est  acr  subiectus  est  igni, 
id  est  Iovi,  iure  super  posito  clemento  marili  traditum  nomen  est. 

Tl  I  E  ETYMOLOGY,  lovem  autem  a  iuvando  dixerunt;  n\ 
enim  res  sic  fovet  omnia,  quemadmodum  calor. 

IX  126.  Iuppiter  is  so  called  from  "Juvans  pater":  His  epi- 
thet "hominum  divumque  acterna  potestas"  is  explained  as  touch- 
ing  the  gods  by  the  physici  thus  :  nam  divitni  potestas  est  quia  ip- 
se, est  aether,  qui  elementorum  possidet  principatum;  as  touching 
men  by  the  mathematici  (astrologers)  as  follows:  hominum  veto 
ideo,  quia  bona  Iovis  inradiatio  honorcs  hominibus  tribuit.  'ae- 
terna'  autem  'potestas'  adiccit  propter  aliorum  numinum  discre- 
tionem :  nam  legimus  Apollonem  deposuisse  divinam  potcstatem 
et  ilcrciilcm  vcl  Liberum  patrcm  non  semper  deos  fuisse. 

IUPPITER  was  then  among  the  first  class  of  deities  according 
to  the  classification  of  Servius. 

As  god  of  the  sky,  Iuppiter  was  also  the  lord  of  storms,  whose 
weapon  was  the  thunderbolt,  though  he  was  not  exclusively  the 
master  of  that  fearful  phenomenon  (I  42  where  Varro  is  quoted 
i'or  the  statement  that  thunderbolts  were  assigned  to  four  deiti 
The  Etruscan  books  also  gave  the  power  of  the  lightning  to  Jove, 
Vulcan  and  Minerva;  moreover,  as  many  as  twelve  different  sorts 
of  thunderbolts  were  named). 

The  aegis  was  also  connected  by  the  Greeks  with  the  production 
of  storms:  sane  Graeci  poetae  turbines  et  procellas       xaxaiyibaq 
appellant  quod  hacc  mota  faciat  tempestatcs.    The  aegis  was  really 
the  hide  of  the  Amalthean  goat  by  which  Iuppiter  was  nourished, 
and  by  the  shaking  of  which  he  caused  storms  (VIII  354). 

The  eagle  was  his  sacred  bird  and  the  oak  among  trees  was  also 
consecrated  to  Iuppiter. 

In  I  394,  Servius  goes  quite  extensively  into  the  causes  for  this 
selection  of  the  eagle  as  the  bird  of  Jove.  It  is  a  bird  of  excessive 
heat,  so  much  so  that  unless  it  put  into  the  nest  with  its  eggs  a  cer- 
tain very  cold  stone  it  would  cook  them 

The  eagle  furnished  Jove  with  his  thunderbolts  in  his  battle 
with  the  gianl  3 

1  here  is  still  another  very  interesting  legend  and  one  which  has 
i  sort  of  euhemeristic  cast,  i.e.,  the  eagle  was  originally  a  hay  :  aptttf 
Graecos  legitur,   puerum  quendam  terra   editunt  admodum  pul- 

9 


chrum  membris  fuisse,  qui  'Aetoc;  sit  vocatus.  hie  cum  luppiter 
propter  patrem  Saturnum,  qui  suos  filios  devorabat,  in  Creta  in- 
sula in  Ideao  antro  nutriretur.  primus  in  obsequium  Iovis  se  dedit, 
post  vero  cum  adolevisset,  luppiter  et  patrem  regno  pepulisset, 
Juno  permota  forma  pueri  velut  paelicatus  dolore  eum  in  avem 
vertit.  quae  ab  ipso  'Aero?  dicitur  Gracce,  a  nobis  aquila  propter 
aquihtm  color  em,  qui  ater  est.  quam  semper  luppiter  sibi  inhaerere 
praecipit  et  fidmina  gestare;  per  hanc  etiam  Ganymedes  cum  ama- 
retur  a  love  dicitur  raptus,  quos  luppiter  inter  sidera  collocavit. 
et  quia  aquilae  haec  est  natura,  ut  solem  recto  lumine  spectet,  sig- 
num  quoque  aquilae,  quod  in  coelo  est,  orientem  semper  solem 
videtur  adtendere. 

ALU  DICUNT  ab  hac  am  lovem  raptum  et  ad  latebras  Cre- 
tenses  perlatum,  cum  a  Saturno  ubique  quacreretur.  ipsam  etiam 
Iovi  cum  adversus  Titanas  bellum  gereret,  obvolasse  in  augurium 
ac  statim  victoriam  consecutam,  et  ideo  inter  sidera  collocatam. 

Thus  in  a  very  careful  and  exhaustive  manner  does  our  author 
narrate  the  various  and,  to  a  certain  degree,  conflicting  interpre- 
tations of  the  fact  that  the  eagle  was  under  the  protection  of 
luppiter. 

As  luppiter  represents  the  light  in  its  victory  over  darkness,  the 
growth  of  the  sway  of  reason  and  law  over  brute  force,  we  are 
not  Surprised  to  find  that  he  retained  his  throne  only  after  terrible 
conflicts  with  giants  and  Titans,  who  symbolize  those  wild  and  un- 
regulated forces  of  nature  before  their  control  by  the  principles 
of  law  and  order.  Of  these  struggles  Servius  has -little  to  say  ; 
though  he  seems  to  assert  that  the  Titans  fought  not  against  lup- 
piter but  against  Cronus  (VI  580),  and  that  it  was  the  giants  who 
were  in  conflict  with  Zeus  (III  578).  :~ 

In  his  quarrel  with  Neptune,  Iuno  and  Minerva,  it  was  Briareus. 
the  hundred  handed,  summoned  by  Thetis  to  the  aid  of  Zeus,  who 
saved  the  day  for  him  (VI  287;  X  567). 

We  shall  next  consider  his  relationship  with  men  as  Servius 
depicts  it. 

luppiter  was  felt  to  be  the  god  to  whom  justice  was  a  special 
care  (X  689)  :  dicimus  priinum  lovem  iustitiae  favere,  non  par- 
tibus:   ■ 

He  was  the  special  guardian  of  oaths  (XII  200)  ;  where  Ser- 
vius seems  to  imply  that  the  sacrifices  at  the  altars,  when  treaties 
were  made,  were  kindled  bv  luppiter  in  answer  to  praver,  thus.  1 

10 


uld   suppose,  signifying  his   interest  and  watchfulness   in   the 
i       ter  of  the  oaths  then  made  between  the  parties. 

In  a  time  when  nations  and  tribes  were  so  separated  in  their 
conceptions  of  religion  and  social  life,  as  well  as  in  their  peculiar 
interests,  that  the  word  for  enemy  and  stranger  were  one  and  the 
same  "hostis,"  it  became  a  matter  of  moment  that  the  rights  and 
immunities  of  travellers  should  be  enforced  by  the  strongest  re- 
ligious sanctions.  So  we  find  it  was  ainonq-  the  Greeks  and  Ro- 
mans,  who  conceived  that  the  supreme  deity  himself  took  under 
his  own  special  protection  all  strangers,  and  marked  for  punish 
ment  all  who  worked  ill  to  the  guest.  In  I  731  we  have  the  story 
of  Lycaon  who,  for  destroying  his  guests,  was  turned  into  a  wolf 
by  fuppiter  to  whom  he  had  offered  a  feast  of  human  flesh  in  his 
own  house.  This  act  of  Iuppiter  was  to  show  that  the  rights  of 
hospitality  must  not  be  violated. 

While  fuppiter  was  not  conceived  as  the  author  of  death  to 
men  he  was  nevertheless  thought  of  as  determining  at  times  the 
sort  of  death  (XII  851)  :  vohint  Iovcm  non  esse  mortis  auctorem, 
sed  posse  mortis  gencre  vel  prodessc  vel  obesse  mortclibus. 

Iuppiter  was  an  ancestor  of  the  Roman  people  through  Venus. 
who  was  the  mother  of  Aeneas  (VII  220). 

At  first  there  was  no  temple  of  Iuppiter  at  Rome  (IX  446). 
Priscus  Tarqu'nius  vowed  such  a  temple  and  Tarquinius  Super- 
bus  erected  it  on  the  Tarpeian  Rock,  having  taken  the  augul 
and  discovered  that  to  be  the  proper  place.  As  there  v  ere  -l<;-; 
of  many  other  gods  on  that  spot,  these  deities  were  induced  to  re- 
move to  other  temples  (a  fine  example  of  evocatio),  Terminus 
alone  refusing  to  go,  thus  signifying  that  if  that  deity  should  be 
worshipped  with  Iuppiter  the  sway  of  the  city  would  be  eternal. 

There  was  a  great  altar  to  Iuppiter  before  the  temple  of  Iup- 
piter Stator,  which  Romulus  had  built  after  the  divinity  had  stayed 
the  flight  of  his  army  in  the  battle  with  the  Salr.nes  (VIII  640). 

As  to  the  immoralities  of  Jove  to  which  reference  is  made  in 
XII  144,  perhaps  it  might  be  said  that  they  arose  from  the  desire 
to  explain  the  origin  of  men  from  the  gods  and  especially  the 
ancestry  of  the  great  families  as  of  divine  beginning 

In  IV  638  we  have  Pluto  referred  to  as  Iuppiter  Stygius,  with 
tin-  explanation  of  the  theocrasia  according  to  the  Stoics:  et  s 
endum  Stoicos  diccrc  tiuum  esse  drum,  cui  nomina  vdriqntur  pro 
dctibus  et  officps,  ionic  ctiam  duplicis  rexits  nutnina  esse  aicun 

II 


tur,  ut  cum  in  actu  sunt,  mares  sint ;  feminae,  cum  patiendt  ha- 
bent  naturam,  etc. 

Servius  gives  the  euhemeristic  explanation  of  Saturnus  and 
luppiter  as  follows  (VIII  3i9)  :  Saturn  was  king  of  Crete  whom 
luppiter  his  son  expelled  in  war.  In  his  flight  Saturn  was  re- 
ceived by  Janus  who  was  then  ruling  in  Italy  and  who  had  a  city 
where  the  hill  Janiculum  now  is.  Saturn,  in  return  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  people  in  the  cultivation  of  the  vine  and  a  more  humane 
manner  of  living,  was  admitted  to  a  share  in  the  kingship  and 
built  a  town  for*himself  on  the  slope  of  the  Capitoline  hill  where 
his  temple  was  to  be  seen  in  the  time  of  Servius 

LUNO 

luno  was  the  wife  of  luppiter  as  was  Hera  of  Zeus.  She- 
was  the  queen  of  the  gods,  and  was  especially  concerned  with  mar- 
riage. Under  various  names  she  was  worshipped  by  the  bride 
to  be  and  the  wife.  As  luno  Pronuba  she  was  the  goddess  of  be- 
trothal, as  luno  Juga  the  deity  who  joined  husband  and  wife  in  the 
new  relation,  as  Juno  Sospita  the  preserver  of  mother  and  child 
at  the  perilous  time  of  childbirth. 

Each  woman  worshipped  her  iuno  as  did  each  man  his  genius 

The  worship  of  luno  is  closely  associated  with  the  moon,  and  to 
her  as  luno  Lucetia  or  Lucina  the  Kalends  were  sacred  as  were 
the  Ides  to  luppiter.  She  also  shared  the  warlike  functions  of 
luppiter.  Fairbanks  says  that  while  Hera  is  primarily  the  queen 
and  the  wife,  luno  is  rather  the  representative  and  guardian  of 
female  life  in  all  its  phases. 

To  turn  to  Servius :  Juno  was  the  sister  and  wife  of  Zeus  and 
therefore  queen  of  the  gods  (XII  830,  I  47). 

The  physici  represent  luppiter  as  Aether  and  luno  as  Aer — kin- 
dred elements,  but  with  luno  as  the  subjected  element.  (See  un- 
der luppiter,  where  the  whole  passage  is  quoted.) 

She  has  many  attributes  or  functions  numina,  or  better  per- 
haps many  divine  powers  (18):  namque  IUNO  multa  habet  nu- 
mina :  est  Curitis,  quae  utitur  curru  et  hasta,  ut  est  hie  illiu  s 
a  r  ma  ,  hie  currusfuit  ;  est  Lucina,  quae  partibus  p  r  a  e  - 
est  ut  IUNO  lucina  fer  op  em;  est  regina  ut  quae 
d  iv  u  m     in  c  e  d  o     regina    sunt    et    alia    cius   numina. 

Iuno  grants  to  Aeolus  the  control  of  the  winds.  Here  again 
the  physici  suggest  their  explanation :  nam  motus  aeris,  id  est 
lunonis,  ventos  creat.  quibus  Aeolus  praeest  (I  78) 

12 


She  is  also  the  goddess  of  marriage  and  as  such  is  called  luno 
Pronuba  (IV  59.  i66,  45,  608). 

In  her  worship  she  delights  especially  in  hymns  and  prayers  ( 1 1 ! 
438) 

luno  was  called  maxima  (VIII  84),  because  of  the  varied  pow- 
ers she  exercised  as  Lucina,  Matrona,  Regina,  etc.  And  the  theo- 
igi  (i.e.,  the  poetae)  say  that  she  was  the  mother  of  the  gods,  who 
is  called  terra  (another  case  of  theocrasia)  whence  a  young  sow 
was  sacrificed  to  her.     (Compare  VIII  43.) 

As  Iuppiter  St/gius  was  identified  with  Dis.  so  was  luno  Inferna 
with  Proserpina,  VI  138. 

luno  was  always  dependent  on  the  help  of  some  other  deity 
to  accomplish  her  will.  This  the  physici  explained  (VII  311)  by 
the  fact  that  air  can  accomplish  nothing  alone,  but  through  the 
union  with  the  winds,  which  produce  clouds  and  rains. 

She  appears  as  the  cause  of  the  insanity  of  Hercules  in  VII 1 
292. 

Unlike  her  spouse,  luno  was  ever  chaste  (and  so  a  proper  ob- 
ject of  worship  for  the  true  wife  and  naturally  invoked  to  avenge 
broken  marriage  pledges,  as  by  Dido  after  Aeneas'  defection)  ; 
XII  144:  Iuppiter  enim  multas  vitiasse  narratur,  cum  nihil  utn- 
quam  tale  de  Iunone  legerimus. 

Her  worship,  according  to  Servius,  goes  back  to  the  Second 
Punic  War  (XII  841)  :..  sed  constat  hello  Punico  secundo  exora- 
tam  hinoncm,  tcrtio  vero  hello  a  Scipione  sacris  quihusdam  etiam 
Romam  esse  translatam 

It  is  said  thai  the  Trojans  had  had  luno  among  their  penates 
(I  734). 

NEPTUNE. 

Neptune  in  Rome  was  originally  merely  a  god  of  moisture  and 
not  a  sea  deity  ;  but  very  early  the  worship  of  Poseidon,  under  the 
aame  of  Neptune,  was  introduced  from  Magna  Graecia.  He  was 
prayed  to  for  safe  journeys  by  sea,  and  contests  with  ships  were 
held  in  his  honor. 

Neptune  was  represented  as  hostile  to  Troy  for  different  rea 
sons:  in  II  201,  it  was  because  his  priest  had  been  stoned  to  death 
by  the  Trojans  inasmuch  as  he  had  refused  to  forbid  the  coming 
of  the  Greeks  by  his  sacrifices.  When  later  Laocoon,  priest  of 
Apollo,  tried  to  take  the  place  of  the  genuine  priest  he  was  de- 
stroyed bv  Neptune,  with  his  children,  the  sea-god  sending  the 

13 


great  serpent  to  accomplish  his  will.  Or  that  the  Trojans  had  had 
no  priest  of  Neptune  since  he  had  been  insulted  by  Laomedon  in 
the  matter  of  the  pay  for  building  the  walls  of  Troy.    (See  below.) 

II  610,  where  we  have  the  fabula  at  length.  According  to  which 
Apollo  and  Poseidon  built  the  walls  of  Troy  for  which  they  were 
to  have  certain  pay.  There  is,  however,  what  might  be  called  an 
explanation  according  to  the  method  of  the  physici,  viz. ;  that  La- 
omedon had  vowed  certain  money  to  fulfil  the  sacra  of  those  de- 
ities, but  that  when  threatened  by  the  Mysians  he  had  misappro- 
priated it,  using  it  for  defense  in  building  walls,  and  hence  Apollo 
and  Neptune  are  said  to  have  erected  the  Avails.  By  this  sacrile- 
gious use  the  gods  were  offended  and  became  inimical  to  the  Tro- 
jans, and  at  the  downfall  of  the  city  were  represented  as  destroy- 
ing what  they  had  built  up.  Hence  the  epithet  "earth-shaker" 
zvooiydwv  "hoc  est  terrain  movens  aquae  concussione,  sicut 
terrae  motus  continent  opiniones." 

The  contest  of  Minerva,  Pallas  Athene,  and  Neptune  as  to  the 

naming  of  Athens  is  recounted  at  length   (VIII   128). 

For  when  Neptune  and  Minerva  were  contending  concerning  the 

naming  of  Athens,  Jupiter  ordered  that  it  should  bear  the  name 
of  the  one  who  should  bestow  on  mankind  the  better  gift.  There- 
upon Neptune  gave  the  horse ;  Athene  the  olive,  and  at  once  be- 
came the  victor — hence  the  name  Athens.  (Cf.  Pallas  Athene. 
Minerva.) 

CERES. 

Notwithstanding  the  importance  of  this  goddess  she  is  but 
slightly  mentioned  by  Servius.  She  was  the  goddess  of  plant  life 
especially,  as  Warde  Fowler  says,  of  the  "fructus"  rather  than 
the  seed.  She  was  worshipped  in  connection  with  the  old  earth 
power  Tellus  by  offerings  of  grain  and  games. 

In  496  B.  C,  under  the  direction  of  the  Sibylline  books,  a  temple 
was  established  for  her  worship,  she  being  at  this  time  identified 
with  the  Greek  Demeter. 

She  was  regarded  as  the  patron  of  the  plebs.  Fairbanks  says 
that  in  the  country  Ceres  continued  to  be  the  spirit  of  growing 
corn,  while  in  the  city  she  was  the  mother  goddess  protecting  her 
people.  One  of  the  great  festivals,  the  Cerealia,  as  its  name  im- 
plies, was  dedicated  to  her ;  it  took  place  on  the  19th  of  April. 

In  IV  58,  Servius  declares  thatCeres  was  the  giver  of  laws  to 
the  people;     nam  et  sacra  ipsius  thesmophoria  vocantur,  (id  est 

14 


legumlatio).  Here  again  the  explanation  is  according  to  the  phys 
ici :    ideo  fingitur,  quia  ante  inventum  frumcntum  a  Cerere  passim 
homines  sine  lege  vagabantur :  quae  feritas  interrupta  est  invento 
usu  frumentorum,  postquam  ex  agrorum  divisione  nata  sunt  tura. 

Two  interpretations  of  the  thesmophoria  :  Thcsmophoria  autem 
vocantur  legumlatio.  an  quia  in  aedr  Cercris  acre  incisae  positae 
leges  fuerunt? 

Ceres  by  some  was  thought  to  be  hostile  to  marriage,  either  be- 
cause of  the  rape  of  her  daughter  Persephone,  or  because  when 
Zeus  preferred  Juno  to  her,  she  was  repudiated  though  she  had 
been  his  wife  (nupta). 

Thus,  at  Eleusis,  when  her  sacra  were  taking  place,  the  temple 
of  Juno  was  closed  and  vice  versa,  nor  could  a  priest  of  Juno  taste 
any  libation  offered  to  Ceres. 

At  Rome  during  her  sacra  care  was  taken  lest  one  mention  fa- 
ther or  daughter,  because  the  fruit  of  marriage  lay  in  children. 

But  others  say  that  Ceres  favored  marriage  because  she  had  been 
Jove's  first  wife  and  presided  over  the  founding  of  cities  (in 
which,  of  course,  marriage  was  the  most  important  factor)  ;  ut 
Calvus  docet  'et  leges  sanctas  docuit  et  cara  iugavit  corpora  conu- 
biis  et  magnas  condidit  urbes. 

Harking  back  to  the  former  opinion  that  Ceres  was  hostile 
to  marriage  we  are  told :  ergo  modo  nuptura  placat  ante  Cere- 
rem,  quae  propter  raptvin  filias  mipluras  execratur. 

Ceres  as  Demeter  is  also  the  mother  of  Diana,  who  is  identified 
with  Proserpina  (cf.  Eclogue  III  26). 

APOLLO  (PHOEBUS,  HELIOS,  SOL) 

Apollo  was  the  old  city  god  of  Cumae,  whence  his  cult  was 
transferred  to  Rome.  He  was  at  first  the  god  of  the  healing  art 
and,  Wissowa  thinks,  was  probably  introduced  at  Rome  under  the 
pressure  of  some  great  plague.  The  games  in  his  honor,  the  Ludi 
Apollinares,  Livy  says  (XXV  12,  15.  Cf.  Macr.  S.I..  17.  25,  27). 
were  established  "victoriae  non  valetudinis  ergo." 

He  was  also  the  god  of  prophecy  and  the  Sibyl  was  his  mouth- 
piece. Augustus  made  Apollo  and  Diana  the  patrons  of  his  new 
imperial  residence  on  the  Palatine. 

Apollo  as  god  of  the  sun  and  of  music  among  the  Greeks  came 
to  be  so  considered  among  the  Romans  when  the  Greek  concep- 
tions obtained  more  thoroughly  in  Roman  religion. 

15 


As  the  archer  god,  his  arrows  represented  the  baneful  effects  of 
the  sun,  while  his,  (i.e.,  the  sun's)  wholesome  influences  were  the 
basis  of  his  attributes  as  healer. 

At  first  Apollo  and  Sol  were  really  different  deities,  the  former 
representing  the  illuminating  power  of  light  in  the  mental  and 
spiritual  realm,  while  the  latter  was  the  expression  of  the  purely 
physical  aspects  of  the  lord  of  day.  In  later  times  no  distinction 
was  made  between  Phoebus-Apollo  and  Helios  among  the  Greeks 
nor  between  Apollo  and  Sol  among  the  Romans. 

As  the  sun  seemed  ever  youthful,  Phoebus- Apollo  became  the 
special  protector  of  youth  whether  in  war  or  in  the  contests  of 
peace. 

We  now  turn  to  Servius. 

The  birth  of  Apollo  and  Diana  is  found  in  Servius'  comments 
on  III  73  :  post  vitiatam  Latonam  luppiter  cum  etiam  ems  sororem 
Astericn  vitiare  vellet  ilia  optavit  a  diis,  ut  in  avem  convcrtcretur : 
versaque  in  coturniccm  est.  et  cum  vellet  mare  transfretare,  quod 
est  coturnicum,  adflata  a  love  et  in  lapidem  conversa,  din  sub  flue- 
tibus  latuit.  posted  snpphcante  Iovi  Latona,  levata  superferri  aquis 
coepit.  Haec  primo  Neptuno  et  Doridi  fuit  consecrata.  postea 
cum  Iuno  gravidam  Pythone  imisso  Latonam  persequeretur,  terris 
omnibus  expulsa  Latona,  tandem  aliquando  applicante  se  litoribus 
sorore  suscepta  est,  et  ilhc  Dianarn  primo,  post  Apollmem  peperit 

Apollo  then  killed  the  Python  and  so  freed  his  mother  from 
that  bitter  persecution. 

His  sister  Diana,  though  always  a  virgin,  was,  nevertheless, 
called  upon  by  women  in  childbirth  because  she  having  been  born 
before  Apollo  had  performed  the  kindly  offices  of  midwife  to 
her  own  mother  at  the  god's  birth. 

[  329.    The  god  was  called  by  different  names  among  the  vari 
ous  races  and  states  who  worshipped  him  according  to  the  various 
benefits  which  he  granted  by  the  exercise  of  his  different  divine 
powers. 

His  arrows  are  explained  as  symbolic  of  the  action  of  disease, 
which  comes  silently  and  in  a  secret  fashion  as  do  those  weapons 

He  is  the  deity  who  protects  the  crops,  who  is  the  god  of  the 
healing  art,  of  divination  (i.e.,  soothsaying),  and  who  has  to  pre- 
side over  the  affairs  of  cities  when  at  peace  as  well  as  over  wars 
waged  at  a  distance  from  home  ( longinqua) . 

Further  great  care  was  exercised  against  the  pollution  of  his 
priests  or  worshippers  (I  329)  :     cui  laurum  ideo  sacratum  quia 

16 


arbor    stiff  itnentts    purgationibusque    adhibeatur,    ut    ostendatur 
nullum  templum  eitis  nisi  purum  ingredi  debcre. 

Defilement  by  contact  with  the  dead  on  the  part  of  his  priests 
was  especially  guarded  against:  cautum  enim  est,  ne  sacerdos 
eius  domum  ingrediatur,  in  qua  ante  quintam  diem  funus  fuerit 

Apollo's  great  function  was  that  of  uttering  the  oracle  rather 
than  that  of  giving  (something)  ;  111  85. 

He  was  worshipped  at  many  altars  in  different  states,  at  which 
victims  were  not  slaughtered  but  where  the  deity  was  reverenced 
by  solemn  prayer  alone. 

Servius  makes  much  of  Apollo's  connection  with  the  art  of 
healing.     (See  above  1  329.) 

Aesculapius,  the  father  of  medicine,  was  the  son  of  Apollo  by 
Coronis,  and  was  taught  the  healing  art  by  Chiron,  the  Centaur 
(VII  76i).  Aesculapius  had  been  removed  from  the  body  of  his 
mother,  who  had  been  transfixed  by  the  angry  Apollo  because 
>he  had  been  reported  to  him  as  adulterous,  in  the  manner  of  the 
birth  of  Julius  Caesar  (X  316).  And  indeed  it  was  because  the 
latter  was  born  as  was  Aesculapius,  the  son  of  Apollo,  that  the 
family  of  the  Caesars  retained  the  guardianship  of  his  sacra. 
I'urther,  all  who  were  born  in  that  manner  were  consecrated  to 
Apollo,  since  he  was  the  god  of  the  healing  art  and  it  was  through 
that  art  that  they  came  to  share  the  light  of  day,  i.e.,  to  live.  In 
XII  405  he  is  called  "inventor  m-cdicinac"  nam  Aesculapius  prae- 
est  medicinae,  quam  Apollo  invenit,  qui  in  Ovidio  de  se  ait:  in 
rentum  medicina  meum  est. 

Apollo  was  (IV  58)  expers  uxoris,  and  indeed  hostile  to  wed 
lock  (IV  i44)  nuptiis  est  hoc  numen  infensum,  though  unlike  his 
chaste  twin  Diana,  he  enjoyed  illicit  love. 

He  presided  over  the  auspices  by  which  cities  were  regulated 
i  IV  58). 

The  various  epithets  of  this  deity  are  important  as  revealing 
the  extent  of  his  worship  or  some  fact  of  his  history  or  attributes 
Preller  gives  two  pages  of  them  in  his  index.     We  shall  confine 
ourselves  to  Servius. 

In  II  332  he  is  called  Patrius  Apollo,  some  say  from  Patrae,  a 
city  of  Achaia.     Others  say  that  altars  were  built  to  Apollo  by 
\esculap:us  and  called  "patrius,"  referring  to  his  parentage. 

Still  others  say  that  there  was  in  a  temple  of  Apollo  an  altai 
said  to  have  been  inscribed  IIATPIOY  AIIOAAQNi  >^  from  this 
fact    that    Icadius.    a    son    of    Apollo    and    the    nymph    Lycia 

17 


when  he  had  come  of  adult  age,  first  of  all  called  the  district  in 
which  he  had  been  born,  Lycia,  and  then  built  in  it  a  city  to  the 
honor  of  Apollo,  and  consecrated  the  lots  and  oracle  and,  that 
he  might  bear  witness  to  the  fact  that  Apollo  was  his  father,  he 
named  it  Patara,  whence  he,  i.e.,  Apollo,  was  called  Patareus  (cf 
IV  377  at  the  end). 

He  was  also  called  the  Delphian  Apollo,  from  his  famous 
shrine,  the  story  of  which  is  as  follows : 

III  332.  Inde  cum  (Icadius)  Italiam  peteret,  naufragio  vexa- 
tus  delphini  tergo  exceptus  dicitur  ac  prope  Pamasum  montem 
delatus  patri  Apollini  templum  constituisse  et  a  delphino  locum 
Delphos  appellasse,  aras  deinde  Apollini  tamquam  patri  conse- 
crasse,  quas  ferunt  vulgo  patrias  dictas. 

The  dolphin  was  thus  introduced  into  the  sacra  of  Apollo : 
hinc  ergo  et  delphinum  aiunt  inter  sacra  Apollinis  receptum; 
cuius  rei  vestigium  est  quod  hodieque  quindecemvirorum  cortinis 
delphinus  in  summo  ponitur  et  pridie  quam  sacrificium  faciunt 
velut  symbolum  delphinus  circumfertar,  ob  hoc  silicet.  quia  quin- 
decemviri  librorum  Sibyllinorum  sunt  antistites. 

The  Sibyl  was  the  seeress  inspired  of  Apollo ;  Sibylla  autem 
A.pollinis  vatcs  et  delphinus  Apollini  sacer  est. 

Cornificius  Longus  is  quoted  by  Servius'in  this  same  passage 
as  giving  the  same  derivation  of  the  name  Delphi. 

The  epithet  "Grynean"  was  suggestive  of  a  deed  of  lust  (IV 
345). 

Of  the  epithet  "Lyceus,"  there  are  several  explanations  (IV 
377).  Perhaps  one  cannot  do  better  than  to  give  them  in  the 
very  words  of  Servius :  Apollinem  Lyceum  appellari  dicunt  sive 
de  Lyco,  quern  vicit,  et  in  victoriae  suae  testimonium  hoc  nomen 
induit :  sive  quod  est  Izvabq  a  candor e;  idem  enim  et  sol 
creditur:  sive  quod  transfiguratus  in  lupum  cum  Cyrene  concu- 
buit:  sive  quod  in  lupi  habitu  Telchinas  occiderit:  sive  quod  lu- 
pus ei  primus  post  inieremptum  Pythonem  ex  eo  loco  qui  appell- 
atur  Tempe,  laurum  attulit :  sive  quod  pastoralis  deus  lupos  in- 
tercmerit.  et  est  alia  fabula,  cur  Lycia  vocata  sit  regio :  Diana 
harum  regionum  gaudebat  venatu;  sed  quodam  tempore  tanta  vis 
luporum  se  ibi  infudit,  tit  omnes  feras  eorum  incursus  absumeret ; 
cum  ergo  omnis  -oblectatio  deae,  quae  de  venatione  veniebat,  ex- 
tinctis  ceteris  animalibus  defecisset,  Apollo  ob  hanc  rem  conse- 
cratus  est  (bad  text)  est  et  alia  de  hoc  fabula:  Danaus  tr aliens 
ab  Aegypto   originem,   cum  videret  ira   N eptuni  vindictam  su- 

18 


mentis,  quod  odversum  se  de  condendis  At  hems  Inackus  fluvius 
pro  Minerva  iudicassct.  uri  siccitatibus  solum,  fdiam  Amymonen 
ad  aqaam  inquirendum  proficisci  iubet.  quae  cum  vidissct  rcp- 
ertum  fontem  hiatu  terrae  receptum  exaruisse,  ad  patrem  detu- 

lit :  quo  Me  prodigio  commotus  oraculum  Apollinis  adiit,  cm 
Apollo  rcspondit,  ut  profcctus  ubi  invenisset  taurum  et  lupum 
inter  se  pugnantes,  spectaret  exitum  pugnac,  ct  si  taunts  vicissct, 
Neptuno  templa  construcrct ;  si  veto  lupus,  Apollini  dclubrum 
sacraret.  scd  cum  Danaus  lupum  videret  vicisse,  Apollini  Lycio 
tcmplum  dedit.  in  Indus  autcm  Lyciae  rcgione  Patara  sacer  olnn 
lucus  Apollini  fuit,  ubi  Apollo  rcsponsa  dedii,  unde  etiam  Pata- 
reus  appellatus  est. 

Here  are  no  less  than  eight  different  accountings  for  the  epithet 
Lyceus,"  a  sufficient  testimony  to  the  infinite  pains  to  which  the 
great  scholar  went  to  inform  his  readers,  and  furnishing  a  splen- 
did illustration  of  the  minutiae  of  detail  in  the  knowledge  of 
such  a  teacher  of  Roman  letters. 

After  his  great  victory,  Augustus  consecrated  a  temple  to  the 
Actian  Apollo  (VIII  704). 

That  Apollo  was  the  great  deity  of  Cumae,  as  we  said  in  the 
beginning,  can  be  seen  from  VI  9,  where  we  are  told  that  the 
arx  of  that  town  was  consecrated  to  him  and  where  Coelius  de- 
clared there  was  a  wooden  statue  of  the  god  fifteen  feet  in  height. 

The  ludi  Apollinares  were  established  according  to  some  au- 
thorities during  the  Second  Punic  War,  according  to  others,  in 
the  time  of  Sulla  according  to  an  oracle  of  the  Marcian  brothers, 
who  were  accustomed  to  give  responses  even  as  the  Sibylline 
oracle  did  (VI,  70). 

The  cortina  is  explained  in  several  ways  (111  92)  :  Cortina 
locus  wide  oraculum  datur.  Dicitur  autcm  cortina,  vel  quod 
Apollinis  tripos  corio  Pythonis  tectus  est,  vel  quod  ccrta  Mine 
rcsponsa  funduntur,  quasi  ccrtina,  vel,  quod  est  verius,  quia  cor 
illic  vatis  tcnetur:  nam  caverna  quaedam  in  tempi o  Apollinis 
fuit,  ad  qitam  Phocbas  rapta  vaticinabatur,  ut  Lucauus  (V  159) 
ostendit.  Alii  cortinam  quasi  ortinam  tradunt,  quod  indc  vox 
.  natur:  aut  (Aen.  VI  347)  ccrtc  secundum  (Jraccam  etymologiatn 
on  tttv  xoonv  xeivei  iycoi  Tivdaoei,  id  est  quod  extendi}  puellam 
ut  'maiorque  vidcri! 

Perhaps  this  is  the  proper  place  to  give  what  Servius  has  to 

^ay  as  to  Sol 

19 


In  I  568  we  are  told  of  the  quarrel  of  Atreus  and  Thyestes, 
which  resulted  in  the  violating  of  his  brother's  wife  by  Thyestes 
and  the  offering  of  the  child  resulting  to  his  own  father  served 
up  as  food  by  the  vengeful  Atreus.  To  avoid  this  fearful  sight 
and  its  consequent  pollution,  Sol  fled  away. 

Here  follows  an  explanation  by  the  physici :  sed  veritatis  hoc 
est :  Atreum  apud  Mycenas  primum  solis  eclipsin  invenisse,  cui 
invidens  f rater  ex  urbe  dicessit  tempore  quo  eius  probata  sunt 
dicta. 

Sol  was  one  of  the  Titans  whom  Earth  bore  in  opposition  to 
Saturnus,  when  she  was  angered  against  the  gods.  Of  them  Sol 
alone  refrained  from  wronging  the  divinities,  and  so  gained  his 
place  in  heaven.  The  Titans  were  named  obid  ttjc.  xioewc,  id  est 
ab  ultione  (VI  580). 

In  I  14  we  learn  that  it  was  because  of  the  spying  of  Sol  upon 
Venus  and  Mars  and  his  report  to  the  other  gods  of  their  shame- 
ful association  and  the  consequent  indignity  offered  them,  that 
Venus  came  to  persecute  the  children  of  the  sun  with  unlawful 
and  indeed  unnatural  passions.  An  illustration  which  Servius 
gives  is  the  story  of  Pasiphae  and  the  consequent  birth  of  the 
Minotaur. 

DIANA..  (ARTEMIS). 

At  Rome,  before  the  supremacy  of  the  Greek  conceptions  in 
religion,  Diana  was  peculiarly  the  goddess  of  women,  to  whom 
appeal  was  made  for  help  in  childbirth.  The  name  is  the  femi- 
nine form  of  Janus,  and  she  was  associated  with  other  begin- 
nings than  those  of  human  life.  She  was  the  guardian  of  those 
treaties  by  which  peaceful  relations  were  entered  upon. 

When  Greek  ideas  came  to  their  own  in  Italy,  Diana  became 
identified  with  Artemis,  the  great  Greek  Goddess  of  wild  life, 
and  on  another  side  of  her  nature,  the  goddess  of  the  moon  as 
the  sister  of  Apollo,  the  Sun-god,  and,  like  him,  she  was  conceived 
as  presiding  over  music,  especially  the  choral  dance.  She  became 
in  Greece  the  ideal  young  woman  as  Apollo  was  the  ideal  youth. 

In  I  499  Servius  refers  to  this  fact  of  her  leading  choral  dances 
of  a  thousand  (put  for  a  large  number)  nymphs. 

Her  relation  to  wild  life  is  suggested  by  the  story  of  the  Caly- 
donian  boar,  which  Diana  sent  against  the  territory  of  the  King 
of  Calydonia  because  he  had  neglected  her  in  sacrifice  (VII 
306). 

20 


Servius  identities  Diana,  Hecate  and  Proserpm..  anothei  evi- 
dence of  the  theocrasia  so  common  in  his  time. 

VI  119.  Hecate  trium  potestatum  numen  est.  ipsa  enim  est 
Luna,  Diana,  Proserpina. 

IV  511.     quidatn  Hecaten  diet  am  esse  tradunt   (i.e.,  tergemi 
nam)  quod  eadem  et  Diana  sit  et  Proserpina    (bro  tojv  ExateQOjv 
:vel  quod  Apollonis  soror  sit,  qui  est  Exam66k)<;    sed  secundum 
Hesiodum  Hecate  Persi  Titanis  et  Asteriae  filia  est,  Diani  lovis 
et    Latona,    Persephone    lovis    et    Ceteris,    quam    genealogiam 
posteriores  confuderunt. 

et  cum  super  terras  est,  creditur  esse  Luna,  cum  in  terris  Diana, 
cum  sub  terris  Proserpina,  quibusdam  ideo  triplicem  placet,  quia 
Luna  tres  figures  habet.     (We  think  of  four.) 

nonnulli  eandem  Lucinam,  Dianam,  Hecaten  appellant  ideo, 
quia  nni  deae  adsignant  potestates  nascendi,  valendi,  moriendi. 
et  quidem  nascendi  Lucinam  deam  esse  dicunt,  valendi  Dianam, 
moriendi  Hecaten  :  ob  quam  triplicem  potestatem  triforem  earn 
tripliccmque  finxcrunt,  cuius  in  triviis  templa  ideo  struxerunt 

Hecate  admits  of  another  derivation  than  that  cited  above(IV 
510)  :     Hecate  dicta  est    excctov        id  est  centum,  potestates  ha 
hens..   In  her  sacra,  thunders  were  imitated. 

The  gloomy  cypress  was  consecrated  to  Diana  (111  68i )  .  ipsa 
mini  est  etiam  Proserpina,  i.e.,  the  goddess  of  the  lower  world 

In   II    116.     Servius  gives  at  length  the  story  of  the  sacrifice 
of  Iphigenia  in  Aulis.     Here  again  we  find  Diana  associated  with 
wild  life,  her  anger  against  the  Greeks  arising  from  the  unwit 
ting  killing  of  a  stag  by  Agamemnon 

Iphigenia  was  rescued  by  the  goddess  and  made  a  priestess 
to  the  Dictyan  Diana.  Later  she  recognizes  her  brother  Orestes 
while  engaged  in  human  sacrifice.  He  kills  Thoas  the  king  and 
carries  off  the  image  of  Dian  in  a  bundle  of  faggots 

Thus  we  see  that  originally  Diana  was  worshipped  with  human 
sacrifice,  but  Servius  says  that  the  cruelty  of  this  cnltus  came  to 
displease  the  Romans  and  they  abandoned  it,  but  the  worship  of 
Diana  was  transferred  to  the  Spartans,  where  the  boys  were  placed 
upon  her  altar  and  lashed  with  whips  to  discover  which  could 
hold  out  longest.  Some  suppose  that  Lycurgus  introduced  this 
worship  in  the  place  of  human  sacrifice 

21 


VOLCANUS   (HEPHAESTUS). 

The  Roman  Vulcan  was  a  fire-god,  eminently,  says  Fairbanks, 
of  the  fire  that  wrought  such  havoc  among  the  wooden  buildings 
of  an  ancient  city.    His  temple  was  outside  the  walls  of  Rome. 

Later  the  worship  of  the  Greek  Hephaestos  was  brought  to  the 
city  and  Vulcan  was  then  identified  with  him,  and  became  the  pa- 
tron of  smiths. 

Vulcan  was  born  from  the  thigh  of  (VII  454)  Juno ;  of  which 
the  physici  have  this  explanation :  ideo  autem  Vulcanus  de  f  em- 
ore  Iunonis  fingitur  natus,  quod  fulmina  de  into  aere  nascuntur; 
for  Juno  was  the  lower  acr  as  Jove  was  the  upper  aether. 

VIII- 414.  Vulcanus  is  the  fire,  and  he  is  called  Vulcanus  as 
if  Volicanus,  quod  per  aerem  volet. 

The  casting  out  of  Hephaestus  from  heaven  by  Zeus,  as  Homer 
tells  it  has  a  physical  basis :  Unde  etiam  Homcrus  dicit  eum  de 
acre  praecipitatwn  in  terras,  quod  omne  fulmen  de  acre  cadit. 
And  because  many  lightning  bolts  fall  on  the  Island  of  Lemnos 
the  story  arose  that  it  was  there  that  Vulcanus  fell. 

His  lameness  the  physici  explained,  quia  per  naturam  numquam 
rectus  est  ignis.  They  also  explained  that  his  shops  were  located 
between  Aetna  and  Liparis  on  account  of  the  fire  and  winds,  both 
of  which  are  advantageous  to  smiths. 

Vulcanus  was  also  called  Mulciber  (VIII  724)  :  ab  eo  quod 
totum  ignis  permulcet;  aut  quod  ipse  mulcatus  pedes  sit,  sicut 
quibusdam  videtur:   quod  igni  mulceatur. 

MINERVA..  (PALLAS-ATHENE). 

Minerva  was  originally  an  Etruscan  goddess  of  practical  wis- 
dom. She  was  the  patron  of  handicrafts.  The  workman's  skill 
was  due- to  her.  Before  she  appeared  at  Rome  she  had  come  to 
be  identified  with  Pallas-Athene,  the  favorite  daughter  of  Zeus, 
and  it  is  from  that  identification  that  she  was  revered  as  a  war 
goddess. 

That  the  legends  and  myths  must  have  been  very  well  known 
is  clear  from  the  fact  that  Servius  does  not  say  anything  so  far 
as  I  have  found  concerning  the  origin  of  Athene  in  full  armor 
from  the  head  of  Zeus ;  though,  doubtless,  this  is  one  of  the  very 
rirst  things  any  school-boy  would  be  apt  to  learn. 

Minerva  never  married,  but  always  maintained  her  virginity 
(1131). 


Like  Pallas-Athene,  she  was  a  war  goddess  as  well  as  the  pa- 
tron of  wool-working  (VII\805). 

She  was  called  Tritonia  virgo  (XI  483;    II  i71).  Tritonia  aat 
quasi  terribilis,   dbto  tou  tqeiv,  id  est  timer e,  ant  a  Tritone  amne 
Boetiae,  aut  a  Tritonide  palude  Africae,  iuxta  quam  nata  dicitur 
sane  'Tritonia'  autonomasivum  est.  quia  proprium  est  Minervae. 

Her  name,  Pallas- Athene,  is  f  rom  ujto  xov  JtdUeiv   id  est  hastae 
concussione  ;  vel  quod  Pallantem  gigantem  occiderit. 

There  are  two  legends  only  which  Servius  gives  with  fullness, 
the  first  that  of  the  Palladium  (II  166). 

This  was  of  special  import  to  the  Romans,  as  it  had  been  proph 
esied  that  their  empire  would  stand  so  long  as  they  were  in  pos- 
session of  the  sacred  image. 

Helenas  a  pud  Arisbam  coptus  a  Graecis  est,  indicavit  co- 
actus  fata  Troiana,  in  quibus  ctiam  de  Palladio.  unde  dicitur  a 
Pyrrho  regna  mcruisse :  quamquam  praestiterit  Pyrrho  ut  per 
terram  rediret,  dicens  omnes  Graccos,  quod  ct  contigit,  nau- 
fragio  esse  perituros.  alii  dicunt  Helcnum  non  captum,  sed  do- 
lore  quod  post  mortem  Paridis  Helena  iudicio  Priami  non  sibi, 
sed  Dciphobo  csset  adiudicata,  in  Idam  montcm  fugisse,  atque 
exinde  monente  Calchante  productum  de  Palladio  pro  odio  pro- 
didisse..  tunc  Diomcdcs  ct  Ulixes,  ut  alii  dicunt,  cuniculis,  ut  alii, 
chads  ascendcrunt  arcetn,  ct  occisis  custodibus  susUdere  simu- 
lacrum, qui  cum  revertercntur  ad  naves  UHxes  ut  sui  tanturti  opc- 
ris  vidcretur  effectus,  voluit  scquens  occidere  Diomedcm:  cuius 
ille  conatum  cum  ad  umbram  lunac  notassct,  rcligatum  prac  se 
usque  ad  castra  Graecorum  egit.  ideo  autem  hoc  negotiurn  his 
potissimum  datur  quia  cultorcs  fucrunt  Minervae.  hoc  cum  pos- 
tea  Diomedes  habcret,  ut  quidam  dicunt :  quod  ct  Vcrgilius  ea 
parte  tangit,  ct  Varro  plenissiuic  dicit:  crcdens  sibi  non  esse  ap- 
tum,  propter  sua  pcricula,  quibus  numquam  cariturum  responsis 
cognovcrai,  nisi  Troianis  Palladium  reddidissct,  transcunti  per 
Galabriam  Aeneae  offerre  couatus  est.  .  . 

Upon  his  attempt  to  give  the  image  to  Aeneas,  by  a  pcculiar 
mistake  Nautes,  and  not  Aeneas,  received  it.  Hence  the  Sacra 
of  Minerva  were  not,  as  might  have  been  expected,  in  the  care 
of  the  Julian  house,  but  of  that  of  the  Nautii. 

Others  say  that  this  story  is  not  the  true  one,  but  that  the  Pal 
ladium  was  hidden  within  a  wall  which  the  Trojans  constructed 
for  that  purpose  when  they  saw  that  their  city  was  doomed      In 

.23 


ihe  second  Mithndatic  war  the  Roman  commander,  Fimbria, 
claimed  to  have  found  it,  and  which  Servius  says,  it  is  sure,  was 
brought  to  Rome. 

To  prevent  its  theft,  an  artisan  was  brought  in  who  made  many 
images  like  it,  but  the  genuine  could  be  known  from  the  power 
of  motion  possessed  by  the  eyes  and  its  spear.  Genuine  author- 
ities insist  that  there  was  only  one  Palladium  originally  possessed 
by  Athens :  dicunt  sane  alii,  unum  simulacrum  caelo  lapsum 
(quod  nubibus  advectum  et  in  ponte  depositum)  apud  Athenas 
tantum  fuisse,  unde  et  yzyvQwxrfe  dicta  est.  ex  qua  etiam  causa 
pontifices  nuncupatos  volunt ;  quamvis  quidam  pontificcs  a  ponte 
sublicio,  qui  primus  Tybri  impositus  est,  appellatos  tradunt,  sicut 
Saliorum  carmina  loquuntur.  sed  hoc  Atheniense  Palladium  a 
veteribus  Troianis  Ilium  translatum. 

Others  say  there  were  two  Palladia :  this  one  of  which  Ser- 
vius has  narrated  the  story,  and  the  other  the  Athenian. 

Others  say  that  when  Ilium  by  Ilus  was  founded,  the  Trojan 
image  fell  from  heaven ;  others,  that  it  was  transferred  by  Dar- 
danus  from  Samothrace  to  Troy ;  and  still  others  say  that  there 
were  many  Palladia,  but  that  this  one  was  carried  off  by  Diomede 
and  Ulysses  through  their  theft. 

For  this  theft  and  the  sacrilege  connected  with  it  in  the  murder 
of  her  priests,  Minerva  became  very  angry  with  the  Greeks. 

She  is  also  said  to  have  been  wrathful  with  them  on  account 
of  the  violation  of  her  seeress  Cassandra  or  because  when  they 
became  victorious,  the  Greeks,  through  their  pride,  had  neglected 
to  offer  her  the  worship  due  (I  4i  ;  XI  259). 

Indeed,  for  the  violation  of  Cassandra  she  required  that  a 
maiden  of  noble  birth  should  be  sent  yearly  to  Ilium  as  a  sacri- 
fice to  herself  from  the  kingdom  and  very  tribe  of  Ajax,  who  had 
been  guilty  of  the  foul  deed. 

Minerva,  according  to  many  authorities,  had  the  power  to  hurl 
the  thunderbolt  (I  42),  as  well  as  Jove  and  Juno. 

The  second  rather  full  account  is  that  of  the  naming  of  Athens 
trom  the  fact  that  Athena  in  competition  with  Neptune  was 
adjudged  to  have  made  the  better  gift  in  the  olive,  than  her  op- 
ponent who  had  produced  the  horse  (VIII  128).  Then  follows 
an  explanation  for  the  offering  of  the  olive-branch,  as  indicating 
a  desire  for  peace,  or  as  a  complete  avowal  of  the  superiority  of 
one's  opponent  in  a  contest  All  this,  however,  need  not  take  our 
time  here 

24 


MARS  (ARES). 
It  seems  remarkable  that  Servius  has  no  more  to  say  of  this 
deity  who  was  so  important  in  the  Roman  pantheon 

Mars  was  the  great  war-god  of  the  Romans,  and  also  the  pro- 
tector of  the  nation  against  other  misfortunes,  as  against  tht 
injury  to  crops  through  rust,  etc. 

He  was  later  identified  with  the  Greek  Ares,  though  he  was 
of  much  greater  importance  in  the  Roman  than  was  that  deity 
in  the  Greek  religion. 

His  importance  to  the  Roman  cultus  can  be  seen  when  we  re- 
flect that  it  was  from  him  that  they  drew  their  national  existence : 
He  was  the  Father  of  the  Roman  People. 

In  VI  777  Servius  gives  the  legend: 

Amulius  et  Numitor  fratres  fucrunt.  sed  Numitorem  regno 
Am-ulius  pepulit  et  Warn  ejus  filiam,  sacerdotem  Vestae  fecit,  de 
hac  et  Marte  nati  sunt  Renins  et  Romulus,  and,  as  we  know,  the 
latter  became  the  founder  of  the  Roman  State. 

Ennius,  according  to  Servius,  declares  that  Ilia  was  the  daugh- 
ter of  Aeneas,  and  so  the  Romans  become  descendants  of  Venus, 
Aeneas'  mother  by  Anchises. 

The  identification  of  Mars  and  the  Greek  Ares  is  seen  in  the 
legends  of  the  battle  of  the  Lapithae  with  the  Centauri  through 
the  jealousy  of  Mars  (VII  304)  and  the  tale  of  the  amour  of 
Mars  (Ares)  and  Venus  (VI  14). 

Among  epithets  of  Mars  we  have  the  well-known  pater  grad 
ivus  (III  35): 

"gradiinim  0oi5oov  vAor|a,  id  est  exilientem  tn  proelia,  quod 
in  bellantibus  sit  necesse  est:  aut  gravem  deum.  patrem  autem 
ideo  quia  apud  pontifices  Mars  pater  dicitur :  alii  'gradivum,'  quod 
graduni  inferant  qui  pugnant;  aut  quod  impigre  gradiantur.  alii 
a  graditudine,  quod  hue  et  illuc  gradiatur;  unde  Martem  cotn- 
munem  dici. 

Here  immediately  follows  another  illustration  of  the  tendency 
to  theocrasia  ....  non  nulli  eundem  Solcm  et  Vulcanum 
dicunt,  sed  Vulcanum  generis  esse  omnis  principem,  Martem  vero 
Romanae  tantum  stirpis  auctorem.  alii  gradivum,  quia  numquam 
equester ;   aut  a  gradu  dictum. 

I  have  quoted  at  length  to  illustrate  Servius'  care  to  give  us  an 
exhaustive  treatment  of  what  he  must  have  felt  to  be  a  matter  of 
considerable  importance,  touching,  as  it  does,  upon  the  special 
deity  of  the  Roman  people. 

25 


Servius  identifies  Mars  and  Quirinus,  though  they  seem  to  have 
been  originally  two  different  deities  (VI  959),  but  even  here  there 
seems  to  be  distinction  drawn  between  the  Mars  worshipped  in 
the  city  precincts  and  the  Mars  whose  temple  was  outside  the 
walls: 

Quirinus  autem  est  Mars,  qui  praeest  pad  et  intra  civitatetn 
templum  habuit. 

Mars  was  called  "bloody" :  sanguineus  Mavors  gaudens  san- 
guine,       aiuoyaQT)g.  (XII  332). 

The  name  Quirinus  is  uncertain  as  to  its  derivation.  Servius 
says  (I  292)  : 

Romulus  autem  ideo  Quirinus  dictus  est,  vel  quod  hasta  ute- 
batur,  quae  Sabinorum,  lingua  curis  dicitur  ....  vel  a 
Koioavog       qui  Graece  rex  dicitur. 

Also  again  the  explanation  of  the  epithet  "gradivus" : 

Mars  enim  cum  saevit  Gradivus  dicitur,  cum  tranquillus  est 
Quirinus.  (See  above  )  The  matter  of  the  two  temples  is  then 
stated,  with  the  assertion  that  that  of  the  "belli  Mars"  was  on  the 
Appian  way  outside  the  city  and  near  the  gate. 

While  Mars  proper  was  the  father  of  Romulus,  Quirinus  was 
actually  the  deified  Romulus,  according  to  Servius,  though,  as  I 
have  said  above,  Servius  calls  both  Mars. 

VENUS   v APHRODITE). 

In  Rome  at  first  Venus  was  the  goddess  of  vegetation,  but  la- 
ter received  the  characteristics  of  the  Greek  Aphrodite  and  be- 
came the  goddess  of  love.  As  Venus  Verticordia  she  was  wor- 
shipped as  the  protector  of  the  family,  though  she  was,  as  in 
Greece,  the  patron  of  free  love  also.  Julius  Caesar  erected  the 
temple  of  Venus  Genetrix  and  established  games  in  her  honor, 
since  she  was  the  author  of  the  Iulian  gens,  having  been  the 
mother  of  Aeneas  by  Anchises,  and  so  the  ancestor  of  the  Roman 
People. 

In  V  801  Servius  tells  the  story  of  her  birth  from  the  foam  of 

the  sea :  et  ut  fcrt  fabula,  Caelus  pater  fuit  Saturni,  cui  cum 
iratus  filius  falce  virilia  amputavit,  delapsa  in  mare  sunt;  de  quo- 
rum cruore  et  maris  spuma  nata  dicitur  Venus;  unde  et  Aphro- 
dite dicitur    cbto  xov  aepgov 

Here  follows  the  explanation  of  the  physici : 

"sed  hoc  habet  ratio  :   omnes  vires  usu  venerio  debilitantur,  qui 

26 


sine  corporis  danino  nun  geritur:    wide  fingitur  Venus  nata  per 
damnum;  de  mari  an  tern  idco,  quia  dicunt  physici  sudor  em  s-al 
sum  esse,  quern  sniper  elicit  coitus. 

EPITHETS  OF  VENUS.  (1  720)  Acidalia  Venus  dicitur  vcl 
quia  inicit  euros  quas  Gracci  aavbag dicunt,  vcl  certe  a  fonte  Acida- 
lio  qui  est  in  Orchomeno  Boeotiae  civitate,  in  quo  se  Gratiae  la- 
vant,  quas  Vencri  esse  constat  sacratas;  ipsius  mini  et  Liber i  fi1 
sunt:  nee  immerito;  gratiae  enim  per  horum  fere  numinum  tnu- 
nera  concdiantur.  idco  autem  nudae  sunt  quod  gratiae  sine  fuel 
esse  debent,  idco  concxae,  quia  insolubiles  esse  gratias  deed,  etc. 

Sane  Vencri  multa  nomina  pro  locis  vcl  causis  dicuntur  iuiposita 
nam  Vcncrem  vocari  quidam  propter  promptam  veniam  dicunt. 
AliiSuadam  appellant,  quod  ipsa  conciliatio  Suada  sit.  dicitur  etiam 
Obsequens  Venus,  quam  Fabius  Gurgcs  post  per  actum  bcllum 
Samniticum  ideo  hoc  numine  consccravit,  quod  sibi  fucrit  obse- 
cuta :  lianc  Itali  postvotam  dicunt.  Dicta  est  etiam  Equcster 
Venus,  dicta  el  Cloacina,  quia  veteres  cloare  purgare  dixeruni 
dicitur  et  Myrica  et  Myrtca  et  Purpurissa.  csi  ct  Erycina,  quam 
Aeneas  sccum  advexit.  dicitur  et  Salacia,  quae  proprie  mcre- 
tricum  dea  appcllata  est  veteribus,  et  Lubcntina,  quae  lubentiam 
mentibus  novam  pracstat,  quamvis  alii  hanc  Lubiam  dicant,  quod 
eo  numine  consilia  in  medullas  labantur,  alii  Mimnerniam  vet 
Mcminiam  dicunt,  quod  meminerit  omnium. 

est  ct  Vcrticordio,  est  ct  Militaris  Venus,  est  ct  Limncsia  quae 
portubus  praeest.  ipsa  et  Victrix  et  Genetrix  ex  Caesaris  somnio 
sacrata.  est  et  Venus  Calva  ob  hanc  causam,  quod  cum  Galli 
Capitolium  obsidcroit  ct  decsscnt  funcs  Romanis  ad  torment  a 
facienda,  prima  Domitia  crincm  suum,  post  ccterac  matronae 
imitatae  cam  exsecucrunt,  wide  facta  tormenta,  et  post  belhim 
statua  Vencri  hoc  nomine  collocata  est,  licet  alii  Calvam  Venercm 
quasi  puram  tradant,  alii  Calvam,  quod  corda  amantum  calviat. 
id  est  fallat  atquc  cludat.  quidam  dicunt  porriginc  olim  capillos 
cecidisse  feminis  et  Ancum  regem  suae  uxori  statuam  calvam 
posuisse,  quod  const itit  piaculo;  nam  post  omnibus  feminis  ca- 
pilli  renati  sunt,  unde  institutuni,  ut  Calva  Venus  colcrefur.  apud 
Cyprios  Venus  in  modum  umbilici,  vcl  ut  quidam  volunt,  mctae 
colitur.  apud  Ephcsios  Vcncrem  Automatam  dixcrunt,  vcl  E.pi- 
daetiam.  RATIO  autem  horum  nominum  talis  est.  Mcliboea  ct 
Alexis  amore  sc  mutuo  dilcxcrunt  ct  iuramento  se  adstrinv 
erunt,  ut  cum  tempus  nuptiarum  vcuisset  sibimct  iungcrcnlur . 
sed   cum   virgincm    parentes  sui   alii  despondissent   et    line    Al- 

27 


exus  vidisset,  spontaneum  subiit  exilium.  vxrgo  autem  ipso 
nuptiarum  die  semet  de  tecto  praecipitavit :  quae,  cum  inlaesa 
decidisset,  in  fugam  conversa  pervenit  ad  litus  ibique  scapham 
ascendit,  ex  qua  sponte  Junes  soluti  esse  dicuntur.  voluntate  ita- 
que  deorum  pervectc  est  ubi  amator  morabatur:  quam  cum  Me 
parans  cum  sodalibus  convivium  suscepisset,  pro  ipso  rei  eventu 
templum  constituit.  quod  ergo  sponte  fuissent  (funes)  soluti, 
Automatae  Veneri  nomen  sacravit,  quodque  cum  epulas  pararet 
virgo  ei  aquis  fuisset  advecta,  Epidaetiae  sacravit. 

She  is  called  "laeta"  probably  because  Paphos,  in  which  she 
specially  delighted  was  always  of  serene  sky  and  without  rains 
(I  415) 

Rosea  was  also  a  perpetual  epithet  of  the  goddess  (II  593) 
She  is  called  Dionian  mother,  referring  to  the  other  story  of  her 
birth  as  given  by  Homer,  viz.,  that  she  was  the  child  of  Zeus  and 
')ione  (III  19) 

The  myrtle  was  sacred  to  Venus  (V  72).  Myrrha,  Cinyrae 
filia,  cum  adamasset  patrem  et  eius  se  stupro  nocturnis  horis  cap- 
tata  ebrietate  paterna  subiecisset  gravidaque  de  eo  esse  facta 
prodito  incesto  cum  patrem  inscquentem  se  stricto  gladio  fugeret, 
in  arborcm  versa  est :  quae  cum  infantem,  quern  intra  uterum  ha- 
bucrat,  etiam  in  cortice  retinerct,  percussa,  ut  quidam  volunt,  a 
patris  gladio,  ut  quidam,  ab  apro,  parvulum  edidit,  quern  educa- 
tum  Nymphae  Adonem  appellaverunt.  hunc  Venus  vehementissi- 
me  dilexit,  et  cum  ira  Martis  ab  apro  esset  occisus  sanguinem  eius 
vertit  in  florem,  qui  numquam  vento  decuti  dicitur.  aborcm  quo- 
que  niyrtum,  ex  qua  puer  natus  fucrat,  tutelae  suae  adscripsit: 
quamvis  alii  dicant,  ideo  myrtum  Veneri  dicatum,  quia  cum  e 
mari  exisset  ne  nuda  conspicerctur,  conlatuit  in  myrto,  vel  quia 
fragilis  est  arbor  ipsa,  ut  amor  inconstans,  vel  quia  iucundi  odoris, 
ut  esic  positae  quoniam  suavis  miscetis  odores! 

We  may  note  here  once  more  Servius'  pains  to  give  the  various 
interpretations,  while  withholding  any  decision  ;  probably  because 
he  felt  that  none  was  possible. 

Venus  is  represented  as  the  wife  of  Vulcan  (Hephaestos) 
VIII  389,  and  the  Ratio,  according  to  the  physici  is  given: 

adludit  ad  rem  naturalem;  namque  ideo  Vulcanus  maritus  fingi- 
tur  Veneris,  quod  Venerium  officium  non  nisi  colore  consistit. 

[n  VI  i4,  we  have  narrated  the  story  of  the  adultery  of  Venus 
and  Mars,  which  was  revealed  to  the  other  gods  through  the  Sun, 
while  Vulcan  bound  them,  unconscious  of  what  was  going  on, 

28 


with  very  tine  chains.  Because  of  this  act  of  Sol,  Venus  pursued 
his  offspring  with  insane  loves.  Then  follows  the  account  of 
Pasiphae  and  the  bull,  with  the  consequent  birth  of  Minotaurus 
and  the  deeds  of  Daedalus  and  Theseus,  which  grew  out  of  the 
madness  of   Pasiphae.     (See  Daedalus  and  Theseus.) 

MERCURY..  (HERMES). 

The  Roman  Mercury  was  not  so  varied  in  his  powers  as  was 
the  Greek  Hermes.  He  remained  the  god  of  trade,  to  whom 
prayers  and  incense  were  offered  by  those  who  sought  success  in 
traffic.  He  was  worshipped  by  a  guild  of  merchants  who  had 
charge  of  his  service,  and  were  appointed  by  the  state. 

Servius,  of  course,  does  bring  in  some  things  which  properly 
belong  to  the  Greek  Hermes,  revealing  the  later  identification  of 
the  two  deities. 

The  legend  is  very  fully  set  forth  by  him  in  VIII  138. 

Mercury  was  the  son  of  Jupiter  and  Maia,  one  of  the  pleiades, 
the  originator  of  eloquence  and  the  lyre,  the  messenger  of  the 

gods. 

He  was  the  inventor  of  the  game  called  palaestra.  (A  full  ac 
count  is  given,  and  it  was  from  anger  aroused  by  his  part  in  that 
incident,  that  he  lost  his  hands  through  the  brothers  of  his  be- 
loved Palaestra,  and  so  received  the  name  Cyllenius  from  Y.uXkbq 
which  term  the  Greeks  gave  to  any  one  mutilated  in  a  part  of 
the  body.  The  term  Hermes  is  thus  explained:  wide  ctiam  her- 
nias vocamus  quosdam  stimulus  in  modum  signorum  sine  mani- 

bus. 

Mercury  is  thus  explained :  Alii  Mercurium  quasi  Mcdicurri- 
um  a  Latinis  dictum  volunt,  quod  inter  coelurn  et  inferos  semper 
intercurrat.    hie  ctiam  mcrcimonii  dcus  est. 

Aetiological  explanation  of  his  winged  hat  and  sandals:  quidam 
hunc  in  petaso  et  in  pedibus  pinnas  habere  volunt  propter  orati- 
onis,  cuius  auctor  est,  velocitatem. 

THE  CADUCEUS:     What  it  was  and  its  rationale. 

caduceum  illi  ideo  adsignatur,  quod  fide  media  hostes  in  amx- 
citiatn  conducat :  quae  virga  ideo  serpentibus  iuligata  est,  ut  st- 
rut illi  obliti  vencni  sui  in  sc  cocunt,  ita  hostes  contemptis  et  de- 
positis  ininiicitiis  in  amicitiam  revcrtantur. 

Mercury  was  born  near  Mount  Cyllenc  in  \rcadia,  and  his 
birth  was   very   rapid    (AMI    139). 

29 


Servius  here  refers  to  the  exegesis  of  the  physici.     Speaking 
of  his  quick  birth,  he  says :    spectat  etiam  ad  rationem  physicam 
nam  celer  est  ubique  Mer curias,  ut  diximus  supra  (IV  239)   et 
ideo  dicit  eum  etiam  in  ortu  faisse  volucrem. 

In  IV  239  Servius  gives  another  reason  for  Mercury's  wings 
and  again  from  the  standpoint  of  the  physici:  Mercurius  ideo  di- 
citur habere  pennas  quia  citius  ab  omnibus  planetis  in  ortum  suum 
currit. 

In  IV  242  Servius  gives  a  little  further  account  of  the  cadu- 
ceus,  which  it  is  worth  while  to  incorporate  here.  He  also  in- 
corporates a  different  interpretation  of  the  name  Hermes  to  that 
cited  above :  Caduceum  quod  primum  Apollo  habuit  et  donavit 
Mcrcurio,  accepta  ab  eodem  lyra  sibi  tradita.  huius  ant  em  virgae 
haec  ratio  est.  Mercurius  et  orationts  deus  dicitur  et  inter pres 
deorum :  unde  vinga  serpentes  dividit,  id  est  venena :  nam  serpcn- 
tcs  ideo  introrsum  spactantia  capita  habent,  ut  significent  inter 
se  legatos  colloqui  et  convenire  debere,  quia  bellantcs  inter  pretum 
oratione  sedantur:  unde  secundum  Livium  legati  pads  caducea- 
tores  dicuntur:  sicut  enim  per  fetiales,  a  foedere,  bella  indice- 
bantur,  ita  pax  per  caduceatores  fiebat.  quibus  caduceis  duo 
mala  adduntur,  unum  Solis,  aliud  Lunae.  sane  de  ipsis  serpe 
ntibus  haec  opinio  est  Mercurius*  haec  tarn  fera  animalia  con- 
cordent,  nos  quoque  concordare  debere. 

*The  text  is  corrupt. 

DERIVATION  OF  NAME  HERMES.  Hermes  autem 
Graece  dicitur  obto  rrjg  eQ^rrvEiag.  Latine  interpres. 

There  were  more  Mercuries  than  one  (cf.  I  297),  according  :o 
Cicero.  Some  said  there  were  four:  a  son  of  Jove  and  Maia;  an- 
other of  Coelus  and  Dies;  a  third  of  Liber  and  Proserpina,  and 
a  fourth  of  Jove  and  Cyllene,  by  whom  the  Argus  was  slain,  and 
who,  they  say,  as  an  exile  from  Greece  on  this  account,  taught 
letters  to  the  Egyptians. 

Mercury  in  the  Etruscan  tongue  was  called  Camillus  'quasi 
minister  deorum.'     (XI  558.) 

VESTA  (HESTIA). 

She  was  the  goddess  of  the  hearth,  the  spirit  of  the  fire  and. 
with  the  penates,  represented  the  spiritual  side  of  the  family's 
prosperity.  She  was  thus  the  centre  of  family  worship,  as  the 
hearth  was  the  place  where  food  was  prepared  and  sacrifice  of  - 

30 


tered  The  city  had  its  hearth,  also,  in  the  little  Aedes  Vestae. 
Here  the  sacred  fire  was  ever  kept  burning  and  proper  reverence 
paid  the  goddess  on  behalf  of  the  state  by  the  Vestal  virgins. 

Once  a  year  the  holy  fire  was  renewed  in  the  primitive  mod- 
by  friction 

I  292.  Vesta  says  Servius  was  invoked,  as  was  lanus,  in  all 
sacrifices,  because  none  could  take  place  without  fire,  of  which 
she  was  the  spirit. 

DERIVATION.     Vesta    was   derived    from  eaxia  ut   di- 

gammos  sit  cdjecta,  sicut  fjo  ver,  'Evexog  Venetus,  vel  quod 
variis  vestita  sil  r-cbus.  ipsa  enim  esse  dicitur  terra,  quam  ignem 
habere  non  dubium  est,  ut  ex  Aetna  Vulcanoque  et  aliis  locis  ard- 
dentibus  datur  intellcgi. 

In  II  296  Servius  calls  her  the  goddess  of  fire.  Others  de- 
rive the  etymology  from  vi  and  stare,  because  Vesta  is  the  earth 
which  poised  in  the  midst  of  the  universe  (mundus),  maintains 
its  position  (stet)  by  its  own  power  (via  sua)  and  contains  fire 
within  itself. 

It  would  appear  that  while  she  accompanies  the  penates  she  is 
not  counted  as  one  of  them,  they  being  Jove,  Juno  and  Minerva. 
Vesta  was  called  white  (cana),  either  because  she  was  conceived 
as  very  old  or  because  of  the  color  of  the  ashes  of  the  hearth  (V 
744) 


31 


CHAPTER  V. 

SATURNUS  (CRONUS). 

Saturnus  was  one  of  the  great  gods  of  early  Italy,  so  great, 
indeed,  that  Italy  was  sometimes  called  Saturnia.  He  was  the 
deity  who  presided  over  the  sowing  and  the  harvest,  and  so  was 
represented  with  a  sickle.  His  origin  we  shall  let  Servius  set 
forth.  He  taught  the  people  the  blessings  of  humane  life,  and 
his  was  the  golden  age  of  freedom  from  severe  toil  and  sin. 

His  great  festival  was  the  Saturnalia,  when,  for  a  few  days  in 
December,  there  was  a  joyous  holiday  which  seemed  to  recall  the 
age  of  Saturn.  Slaves  were  permitted  their  freedom  and  were 
even  served  at  table  by  their  masters.  This  season  of  good  cheer 
came  December  seventeenth.  Later  on,  he  was  identified  with  the 
Greek  Cronus,  and  the  original  conception  of  him  was  somewhat 
changed,  though  he  always  persisted  as  a  genuine  Italian  deity. 

In  VIII  319  Servius  gives  an  euhemeristic  explanation  of  the 
origin  of  Saturn :  nam  Saturnus  rex  fuit  Cretae,  quern  Iuppiter 
Filius  hello  pepulit.  hie  fugiens  ab  Iano  rege,  qui  urbem  habuit, 
ubi  nunc  Ianicahim,  est  susceptus,  qui  regnabat  in  Italia. 

In  return  for  this  kindness  we  are  told,  quern  cunt  docuisset 
usum  vinearum  et  falcis  et  humaniorem  victum,  in  partem  est 
admissus  imperii  et  sibi  oppidum  fecit  sub  clivo  Capitolino,  ubi 
nunc  eius  aedes  videtur.   qui  postea  suum  repetivit  imperium. 

Hence  arose  the  Saturnalia :  ex  hoc  et  Saturnalia,  ut  essent 
memoralia  vitae  quam  Saturnus  docnerat :  qua  die  simili  et  per- 
miscuo  victu  utuntur  servi  et  liberi.  ideo  autem  in  aede  ipsius 
Saturni  aerarium,  quod  ibi  potissimum  pecunia  servaretur.  eo 
quod  illi  maxime  credatur. 

The  Saturnian  age  was  not,  however,  without  its  laws,  for  Sat- 
urn was  conceived  as  a  lawgiver  (VIII  322).  In  this  same  pas- 
sage he  is  identified  with  the  Greek  Cronus,  who  devoured  his 
children.  Upon  his  driving  out  by  Jove,  he  fled  to  Italy  and  lay 
hidden  (latuit)  from  his  son,  whence  Latium  received  its  name. 

In  VII  180  we  have  the  contrary  to  the  elevation  of  men  to 
the  position  of  gods,  viz.,  the  deliberate  assumption  of  divine 
names  by  men.  So  Servius  says  that  Saturn  assumed  the  name 
of  the  deity  as  King  of  Italy  and  that  ancient  kings  did  this  gen- 
erally. Thus  the  tomb  of  a  King  by  the  name  of  Jove  was  shown 
in  Crete  (Euhemerus). 

32 


I  cannot  resist  a  reference  or  two  to  explanations  of  Saturnus 
which  Servius  makes  in  annotation  of  the  Georgics. 

fn  G  [[  406  he  has  the  legend  of  the  use  of  the  sickle  in  tin- 
amputations  of  the  genitals  of  his  father  Caelus  and  the  conse- 
quent production  of  Venus  from  the  combination  of  his  blood  and 
the  foam  of  the  sea,  which  he  expounds  according  to  the  physici 
quod  ideo  fingitur,  quia  nisi  umor  de  caclo  in  terras  descenderit . 
nihil  creatar. 

Others  explain  Saturnus  as  the  god  of  the  seasons  (temporum) 
or  perhaps  of  times  in  the  larger  sense  of  cycles,  and  make  the 
sickle  the  symbol  of  this  meaning  because,  even  as  the  seasons. 
it  is  always  turning  back  upon  itself. 

In  G  III  93  we  have  the  myth  of  the  origin  of  Chiron  the  Cen- 
taur who  was  the  son  of  Saturn  by  an  illicit  amour. 

SILVAN  US.  He  was  also  a  god  of  the  woods,  as  his  name 
implies,  a  kindly  spirit  protecting  the  peasant's  flocks  from  wolves 
the  deity  of  the  peasant's  farm  which  he  had  reclaimed  from  the 
forest.  Servius  says  little  about  him.  In  VIII  601  he  calls  him 
dens  pecorum  et  agrorum.  But  adds  that  the  more  philosophical 
interpreters  make  him  a  god  of  matter:  essevhv.bv  0f6v,  hoc  est 
dcum  vh}<;.  vht\  antem  est  faex  elementorum,  id  est  ignis  sordidior 

et  aer,  item  aqua  ct  terra  sordidior,  unde  cuncta  procreantur,  quam 
uXnv  Latini  materiam  appellaverunt ;  nee  incongrue,  cum  materiae 
silvarum  sint.  ergo  quod  Gracci  a  toto,  hoc  Latini  a  parte  dixerunt 

BONA  DEA  (Ops,  Terra,  Rhea,  Maia).  In  VIII  314  the  god 
dess  Bona  Dea  is  identified  with  Fauna,  who  here  is  conceived 
is  the  daughter  of  Faunus  and  whose  name  it  was  not  lawful  to 
pronounce.  H'ence  she  was  spoken  of  as  Bona  Dea.  Later  she  was 
identified  with  other  female  deities,  as  with  Ops  and  Maia,  for 
example.  Ops,  according  to  XI  532,  is  the  same  as  Terra,  the 
wife  of  Saturnus,  whom  the  Greeks  called  Rhea.  Others  identify 
her  with  Diana. 

All  Servius  tells  us  of  Maia  is  that  she  was  mother  of  Mercu 
rius,  one  of  the  daughters  of  Atlas,  and  one  of  the  Pleiades  (VIII 
138) 

This  goddess  is  involved  in  much  mystery.  Wissowa  thinks 
that  some  Greek  cult  later  imposed  threw  the  original  worship  in 
the  shade.  Warde  Fowler,  in  his  Roman  Festivals,  says  that 
Bona  Dea  was  "at  one  time  .  a  protective  deity  of  the 

female   wx,  the  earth    Mother   (cf     Terra   Rhea),  a   kindly   and 

33 


helpful  but  shy  and  unknowable  deity  of  fertility  "  In  her 
great  December  Festival,  men  were  not  allowed,  their  portraits 
being  veiled.    Her  offering  was  a  young  sow. 

FAUNUS. 

Faunus  was  a  spirit  of  the  woods  and  hills.  He  lent  fertility 
to  the  fields  and  made  the  flocks  productive.  As  Lupercus,  he 
protected  them  from  the  wolves,  and  from  this  side  of  his  char- 
acter the  Lupercalia  arose. 

He  was  also  a  god  of  prophecy  (Fatuus).  His  wife  was  Fau- 
na or  Bona  Dea  (q.  v.),  although  Servius  calls  her  his  daughter 

He  is  one  of  the  few  remaining  elements  in  the  Roman  relig- 
ion which  was  really  Italic  in  origin,  and  remained  such  for  the 
most  part,  though  later  he  was  in  certain  respects  closely  related 
to  the  Greek  Pan. 

Servius  dwells  almost  entirely  on  his  function  as  foreteller  of 
the  future. 

Thus  in  VII  81  :  Faunus  and  xr\<;  qxovfjg  dictus  quod  voce  non 
signis  ostendit  futura. 

VII  47:  (Faunus)  quidam  deus  est  Faticulus.  huius  uxor  est 
Fatua.  idem  Faunus  et  eadem  Fauna  a  vaticinando ,  id  est  fando, 
wide  et  fatuos  dicimus  inconsiderate  loquentes. 

In  VIII  314  the  same  facts  are  given,  with  the  addition  that  the 
Bona  Dea,  so  called  because  it  had  been  prohibited  to  utter  her 
real  name,  was  a  daughter  of  Faunus,  who  was  himself  son  of 
Picus.  He  was  only  one  of  a  race  of  Fauni,  so  named  because 
per  stuporem  divina  pronuntient. 

There  is  also  another  derivation  of  the  word  as  if  from  'favens 
quidam  Faunum  appcllatum  volunt  eum  quern  nos  propitium  dic- 
imus.    The  Fauni  inhabited  the  groves,  and  were  called  indi- 
genae,  Greek  oartoxflovEC.  id  est  inde  geniti. 

The  Lupercalia,  in  February,  are  connected  with  his  worship. 
So  Ovid  Fasti  II  268;  101. 

Servius'  explanation  of  this  strange  survival  from  a  very  early 
time  accords  with  this  of  Ovid,  that  it  was  a  festival  sacred  to  the 
Lycian  Pan,  who  was  identified  with  Faunus,  the  god  of  Evander 
who  implored  the  help  of  that  deity  against  the  wolf,  the  preda- 
tory enemy  of  the  flock  (VIII  343). 

By  others,  Pan  Enualios  was  thought  of  as  a  war  god,  and  by 
still  others  he  was  identified  with  Father  Liber,  because  sacrifice 
to  both  deities  was  made  by  the  immolation  of  a  goat. 

34 


That  Faunus  and  Pan  are  one  is  perfectly  clear  from  Ovid 
Fasti  II  424  or  (53)  :  F annus  in  Arcadia  templa  Lycaeus  habet. 

In  VIII  663  we  are  told  that  the  Lupercalia  were  celebrated  in 
honor  of  Pan  because  the  Romans  (in  343  Romulus  and  Remus) 
had  regained  their  flocks  when  they  were  being  carried  off  by 
robbers,  having  first  thrown  aside  their  garments.  Thus  the 
Lupercalia  were  celebrated  by  nude  (in  the  Roman  sense)  men, 
since  without  their  garments  they  had  overtaken  the  robbers, 
slain  them  and  recovered  their  sheep.  Pan,  being  the  deus  pasto- 
ralis,  had  doubtless  given  them  success  in  their  undertaking. 

Perhaps  we  ought  to  say  that  there  was  still  another  explana- 
tion which  it  is  hard  to  connect  with  the  worship  of  Faunus  un- 
less it  was  thought  that  as  a  spirit  of  fertility  he  might  have  some 
good  offices  in  that  case  also ;  namely,  that  the  Lupercalia  were  in- 
stituted with  a  view  to  removing  the  sterility  of  the  women : 
ideoque  et  puella  de  loro  capri  caeduntnr,  ut  care  ant  stcrilitate  et 
fecundae  sint,  nam  pellem  ipsam  capri  veieres  februm  vocabant 
[II  343). 

BACCHUS   (LIBER). 

In  Italy,  Liber  was  identified  with  the  Greek  Dionysos  or  Bac- 
chus, who  was  a  god  of  the  vine  and  of  vegetation,  and  whose  ex- 
periences on  earth  were  symbolical  of  the  alternate  growth  and 
death  of  vegetation. 

The  Romans  not  only  conceived  him  as  the  god  of  wine  but 
also,  as  in  the  Libcralia,  associated  with  Libera  in  the  giving  of 
children. 

I  now  proceed  to  set  forth  what  Servius  has  to  say  of  this  deity. 

He  has  the  epithet,  "Giver  of  joy ,"dator  laetitiae,  because  of 

the  happy  effects  of  wine  (I  734). 

Also,  Pater  Lyaeus,  quod  nimio  vino  membra  solvantur   (I\ 
58).     Servius  gives  the  etymology  as  djto  xov  ?.veiv. 

Liber  was  especially  invoked  by   free  cities,  and  those  cities, 
as  a  mark  of  their  status,  erected  a  statue  of  Marsyas,  the  minis 
ter  of  Bacchus,  on  their  forums  (IV  58;  III  120). 

Bacchus  was  among  the  deities  who  were  esteemed  opposed  to 
lawful  wedlock,  in  his  case  because  he  rejoiced  in  free  love,  espe- 
cially among  the  Bacchae,  and  was  unable  to  have  association  with 
any  unless  he  had  first  made  them  an  object  of  his  violent  cap- 
ture (TV  58) 

35 


' 


His  sacra  were  called  orgia,  the  common  name  for  sacra  among 
the  Greeks  as  was  caeremoniae  among  the  Latins.  They  were 
celebrated  every  three  years.  The  term  was  derived  djto  xfjc 
6qy%  {furoris)  or  cbio  tcov  oqcoov  montibus  and  in  the  case  of 
Liber  was  used  "abusive,"  says  Servius. 

Servius  declares  in  XI  737,  that  among  the  ancients  the  ludi 
theatrales  were  not  held  except  in  honor  of  Father  Liber. 

By  the  Stoics,  Liber  was  considered  only  a  personification  of 
the  power  of  the  One  Supreme  Deity,  thus  again  bearing  witness 
to  the  "theocrasia,"  which  was  so  evident  in  Servius'  time  as  an 
inheritance  through  the  Alexandrine  school  from  the  earlier  Sto- 
ics. 

IV  638.  et  sciendum  Stoicos  dicere  unum  esse  deum,  cui  nomina 
variantur  pro  actibus  et  officiis.  unde  etiam  daplicis  sexus  nu- 
mina  esse  dicuntur,  ut  cum  in  actu  sunt,  mares  sint;  feminae, 
cum  patiendi  habent  naturam;  unde  est  conjugis  in  gremium  lae- 
tae  descendit.  ab  actibus  autem  vocantur,  ut  'luppiter'  invans  pa- 
ter; Mercurius  quod  mercibus  praeest;  'Liber'  a  libcrtate. 

There  is  yet  another  epithet  of  Liber  which  should  be  noticed, 
viz.,  Lenaeus ;  nam  Liber  Lenaeus  dicitur  (IV  207),  quia  torcu- 
lis  praeest,  qui  et  Graecc  ?.nvo!  dicuntur;  nam  cum  sit  Graecum. 
a  mentis  delenimento  non  potest  accipi. 

This  last  is  a  fine  illustration  of  Servius'  great  care  not  to  con- 
fuse Latin  and  Greek  in  making  his  derivatives. 

AMOR,  CUPIDO  (EROS). 

The  Roman  Amor  or  Cupido  is  really  the  Greek  Eros.  The 
latter  was  represented  as  accompanying  Aphrodite,  first  con- 
ceived as  a  youth,  then  as  a  boy  and  last  as  a  baby. 

He  executed  the  commands  of  Aphrodite  as  did  Cupid  those 
of  Venus.  He  carried  either  a  lyre  or  bow  and  arrows.  The  re- 
lation of  the  passion  of  love  to  the  soul  is  beautifully  set  forth  in 
the  story  of  Cupid  and  Psyche. 

Servius  refers  but  little  to  Cupid.  In  I  663-664,  he  says :  La- 
tini  deum  ipsum  'Cupidinem'  vocant  hoc  quod  facit  'amorem.' 
sed  hie  imitatus  est  Graecos,  qui  uno  nomine  utrumque  signifi- 
cant; nam  Amorem  dixit  deum:  sed  discrevit  epitheto.  sane  nu- 
men  hac  rationc  non  caret,  nam  quia  turpitudinis  est  stvlta  cu- 
piditas,  puer  pingitur,  ut :  inter  quas  curam  Clymene  narrabat 
inancm,  id  est  amorem,  item  quia  imperfectus  est  in  amantibus 
sermo,  sicut  in  puero,  ut  'incipit  effari  mediaque  in  voce  resistit 

36 


alatus  autem  ideu  est,  quia  amantibus  nee  levins  aliquid  nee  mu 

tabilius  invenitur,  ut  in  ipsa  probatur  Didonc ;  nam  de  cius  inter 
itu  cogitat,  cuius  paulo  ante  more  deperibat,  ut  'nan  potui  abrep- 
tum  divellere  corpus.'     Sagiltas  vcro  ideo  gestarc  dicitur,  quia 
et  ips.ic  inccrtae  velocesque  sunt,   et  haec  ratio  paenc  in  omnibus 
aliis  numinibus  pro  potestatum  qualitate  formatur. 

We  note  here  the  clear  symbolism  of  the  philosophical  inter- 
pretation of  the  myth,  even  in  the  detailed  attention  to  the  vari- 
ous matters  of  size  and  equipment  of  the  love  god,  i.e.,  he  v. 
represented  as  a  boy  who  could  hardly  speak  without  hesitancy 
because  lovers  say  little  and  then  not  very  connectedly  ;  he  was 
winged,  because  love  is  ever  ready  to  take  its  flight  elsewhere , 
with  bow  and  arrows,  because,  like  love,  they  were  swift  and  un 
certain  in  their  destination. 

I  664.  Cupid  was  the  "strength  of  Venus,"  either  because  the 
sexual  desire  cannot  be  exercised  without  love,  or,  according  to 
Simonidcs,  because  Cupid  was  born  only  from  Venus. 

Then,  in  his  usual  thorough-going  fashion,  Servius  gives  the 
different  accounts  of  the  origin  of  Love:  although  others  say 
he  was  sprung  from  Mars  and  Venus,  others  from  Vulcan  and 
Venus,  and  yet  others  that  he  was  the  son  of  Chaos  and  the  origi- 
nal universe  (primac  rerum  naturae). 

In  this  connection  Servius  mentions  the  existence  of  Anteros 
(IV  520)        'Avtf.qcotci       invocat,  contrarium  Cupidini,  qui  amo- 
rcs  resolvit,  aut  certe  cui  curac  est  iniquus  amor,  sccilicct  ut  in 
plicct   non   amantem:    amatoribus   praecsee   dicuntur  'Av-riococ;, 
AuoEQCog. 

IANUS 

[anus  was  the  only  one  of  the  great  gods  who  maintained  his 
own  character  without  addition  from  Greek  myth. 

In    his    "Religious    Experience    of    the    Roman    People,"    W 
Warde  Fowler  takes  the  position  that  to  the  later  Romans  he  was 
not  an  intelligible  deity.     So  modern  scholars  have  interpreted 
him   in   different  ways,— as  sun-god,   heaven-god,   universe-god, 

wind-god. 

Fowler  seems  to  distrust  the  old  etymologies;  but  is  inclined 
to  the  view  that,  as  the  original  numen  of  the  city  gate,  he  became 
the  god  of  beginnings  in  general.  So  he  was  worshipped  as 
Pater  Matutinus  in  the  early  morning,  on  the  Kalends  of  each 
month,  and  on  the  first  of  January. 

37 


In  all  prayers  and  invocations  he  was  named  first  as  was  Vesta 
last.  His  blessing  was  sought  before  important  events  or  under- 
takings, e.g.,  before  harvest,  marriage*  or  birth. 

Fairbanks  connects  his  name  with  iamiae  and  iani,  and  names 
Cardea  (cardo,  hinge)  as  his  wife. 

His  most  important  worship  was  on  the  Forum  and  under 
the  care  of  the  Rex  Sacrorum.  His  little  house  had  two  doors,  one 
at  each  end,  and  within,  in  later  times,  the  statue  with  its  two 
faces.  He  was  associated  with  war  in  that  this  "house"  had  its 
doors  open  in  time  of  war,  closed  only  when  the  nation  was  at 
peace. 

Servius  tells  us  the  etymologies  of  the  name  Ianus  which  he 
knew  (VII  610)  :  quidam  Ianum  Eanum  dicunt  ab  eundo ;  and 
they  identify  him  with  Mars;   eumque  esse  Martem. 

As  we  said  above,  he  was  always  invoked  first,  the  reason  for 
which  seems  to  lie  in  this  identification  with  Mars :  et  quod  apud 
Roman os  plurimwm  potest  (i.e.,  Mars)  ideo  primum  in  venera- 
tione  nominari. 

IANUS  as  the  air ;  alii  Ianum  aerem  credunt;  et  quia  vocis 
genitor  habeatur,  idcirco  mandari  ei  preces  nostras  ad  deos  perfe- 
r en-das.     (Would  this  perhaps  explain  his  being  first  invoked?) 

Ianus  as  the  world :  alii  Ianum  mundum  accipiunt,  cuius  caulae 
ideo  in  pace  clausae  sunt,  quod  mundus  undique  clausus  est,  belli 
tempore  aperiuntur,  ad  auxilium  petendum  ut  pateant. 

IANUS  CLUSIVIUS  et  P AT U LCI  US  :  alii  Clusivium  di- 
cunt, alii  Patulcium,  quod  patendarum  portarum  habeat  potesta- 
tem. 

[ANUS  IUNONIUS :  idem  Iunonius;  inde  pulchre  Iuno 
portas  apcrire  inducitur. 

IANUS  QUIRINUS:  idem  Quirinus,  wide  trabeatum  consu- 
1cm  apcrire  portas  dicunt  eo  habitu  quo  Quirinus  fuit. 

Ianus  was  represented  either  as  two  or  four  faced  (VII  607). 
At  the  fall  of  Falerii  an  image  of  the  deity  with  four  faces  was 
discovered.  It  was  brought  to  Rome  at  the  order  of  Numa  and 
a  temple  near  the  forum  transitorium  with  four  gates  was  erected 
for  its  reception. 

The  two-faced  Ianus  was  explained  from  the  fact  that  the  day 
is  marked  by  two  special  events, — the  rising  and  the  setting  of 
the  sun,  and  hence  he  was  called  the  "lord  of  day." 

He  was  represented  with  four  faces  as  the  lord  of  the  whole 
year,  which  is  certainly  divided  into  four  seasons. 

38 


That  he  was  conceived  of  as  god  of  the  year,  Servius  says  is 
clear  because  from  him  the  first  part  of  the  year  is  named ;  nam  a 
lano  Ianuarius  dictus  est. 

In  XII  198  we  have  still  another  explanation  of  the  two  faces 
of  the  god:  namque  postquam  Romulus  et  Titus  Tatius  in  foe- 
dcra  convenerunt,  lano  simulacrum  duplicis  fronds  effectum  est 
quasi  ad  imagincm  duorum  populorum. 

In  this  same  passage  we  are  told  that  it  was  a  function  of  Ianus 
to  preside  over  treatises  in  their  making:    Ianum  quoque  rite  in 
vocat  quia  ipse  faciendis  focderibus  praecst. 

The  coinage  bore  on  one  side  the  head  of  the  deity,  on  the  other 
the  imprint  of  a  ship;  because  he  had  come  to  the  Janiculum, 
where  he  had  his  city,  as  an  exile  and  in  a  single  ship 

We  are  told  further  in  VIII  319  that  lanus  lived  on  this  hill 
and  that  here  he  received  Saturnus  (q.v.)  and  from  him  as  king 
received  the  instruction  in  the  arts  of  humane  living,  for  which 
Saturn  was  always  remembered  with  gratitude  by  the  Roman 
people.  These  last  two  references  are  a  fine  example  of  the  euhe- 
meristic  exegesis  of  the  myth. 

JUTURNA:  She  was  a  nymph  of  healing,  to  whom  Lutatius 
Catulus  first  built  a  temple  on  the  campus  Martius  (XII  139). 
Her  name  was  derived  from  "juvans,"  since  she  aided  men  by  the 
healing  waters  of  her  spring  near  Numicum.  She  was  the  most 
important  of  the  nymphs  who  possessed  healing  powers. 

ATLAS. 

He  was  the  great  Titan  who  bore  the  heaven  upon  his  shoul- 
ders and  who  was  generally  located  in  the  west.  Some  say  that 
it  was  because  he  led  the  revolt  against  Zeus  that  he  was  punished 
with  this  endless  task. 

In  I  741  Servius  gives  an  euhemeristic  exegesis  of  the  myth 
Hercules  was  a  philosophus  and  was  taught  by  Atlas,  who  was 
said  to  have  received  heaven  as  a  burden  and  held  it  up  because  of 
his  knowledge,  of  the  heavens  (astrology).  Further,  I  [ercules  was 
said  to  have  slain  so  many  monsters  because  of  this  knowledge 
of  hitherto  unknown  facts. 

IV  246  relates  that  Atlas  was  a  king  who  had  somewhere  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  Aethiopians  a  fine  apple  orchard,  in 
which  were  apples  of  gold  watched  by  the  Hespcrides  and  a 
sleepless  dragon.     Warned  by  Themis  that  a  son  of  love  should 

39 


one  day  gain  possession  of  his  fruit  he  refused  to  receive  any 
one  into  hospitality  lest  he  might  prove  the  fated  robber. 

At  last  Perseus  came,  a  son  of  Jove,  and  on  being  refused  hos- 
pitality turned  Atlas  into  a  mountain  through  the  help  of  the  Gor- 
gon's head,  which  turned  to  stone  all  who  gazed  upon  it. 

In  IV  484  Servius  narrates  the  other  story  in  which  Hercules, 
not  Perseus,  gains  the  golden  apples  from  the  garden  of  the  Hes- 
perides 

FURIAE  (ERINYES,  EUMENIDES). 

These  were  spirits  of  the  lower  world.  In  Homer  they  en- 
force natural  law  in  depriving  the  horses  of  Achilles  of  human 
speech,  or  social  law  in  guarding  the  rights  of  strangers  and  beg- 
gars, and  particularly  they  defend  the  rights  of  the  first  born. 
Later  poets  conceive  of  them  as  spirits  that  avenge  crimes  of  vi- 
olence and  those  against  the  family. 

Vergil  introduces  them  into  his  poem,  but  Servius  does  not 
enter  into  any  lengthy  discussion  of  their  character  or  functions. 
Their  number  became  fixed  to  three,  Tisiphone,  Alecto  and  Me- 
gaera. 

In  IV  469  Servius  explains  the  reference  to  the  Eumenides  as 
though  they  were  a  large  number  coming  on  in  troops,  aut  impe- 
tus aut  secundum  quosdam,  quoniam  habitus  earum  et  sibila  ser- 
pentium  faciem  agminis  praebent :  here  we  have  a  suggestion  of 
their  snaky  locks ;  vcl  quia  plures  furiae  putantur  (according  to 
the  older  idea)  vel  quia  furiosis  pro  tribus  plures  videntur. 

VII  327,  331  the  furies  are  called  the  daughters  of  night,  and 
commenting  upon  Juno's  appeal  to  Alecto  Servius  says  it  was  the 
special  office  of  the  furies  to  stir  up  wars. 

VI  250  they  are  called  Eumenides  xaxd  dvtiqpoaaiv  cum  sint 
immites.    So  VI  375. 

This  last  does  not  agree  with  the  statement  that  the  Eumeni- 
des were  really  kindly  goddesses  to  those  who  were  pure  and 
good,  and  were  so  worshipped  as  Semnai,  Potniai,  and  Eumeni- 
des. 

As  avenging  goddesses  they  were  also  called  Dirae,  VIII  701 
XII  845  says  they  are  called  "dirae"  because  they  only  appear  in 
the  presence  of  Zeus  when  he  is  enraged 

40 


CYBELE 

She  was  the  same  as  Rhea,  Magna  Mater  Idaea,  and  was  con 
ceived  of  as  the  mother  of  Zeus  and  other  Olympian  deities.  Her 
home  was  among  the  mountains  of  Crete  and  there  Zeus  was 
born.  She  is  interpreted  as  the  earth-mother  whence  all  life  pro- 
ceeds. Zeus's  grave  was  shown  in  Crete ;  hence  the  myth  has 
been  made  'o  stand  for  the  birth  and  death  of  vegetation  ;  the 
wild  orgies  in  honor  of  the  goddess  symbolizing  the  delirious  joy 
of  the  people  at  the  returning  life  of  Spring,  or  of  sadness  at  the 
decay  of  plant  life  in  the  winter. 

In  III  111  Servius  derives  the  name  Cybele  from  a  mountain 
in  Phrygia  where  the  goddess  was  worshipped.  Others  say  that 
she  was  named  from  Cybelus  her  first  priest  in  Phrygia,  while 
still  others  say  the  name  comes  from  v.v6ioxuv  x\\v  v.£($akr\v  that 
is  from  the  rotary  movement  of  the  head  which  was  peculiar  to 
her  priests  in  her  worship. 

In  X  220  Cybele  is  declared  to  be  the  mother  of  the  gods  and 
the  same  derivation  of  her  name  as  that  above  is  given  with  this 
added :  quod  semper  Galli,  per  furorem  motu  capitis  rotantes. 
ululatu  futura  pronuntiabant :  Lucanus  (I  566)  crinemque  ro- 
tantes sanguinei  populis  ulularunt  tristia  Galli  (cf.  IX  81). 

Lucretius  in  his  second  book  gives  a  very  lively  account  of  her 
worship  in  Italy  through  bands  of  roving  priests.  See  also  Ae- 
neid  VI  784 

IRIS 

Iris  is  the  Rainbow,  the  messenger  of  the  gods,  the  fitting 
symbol  of  the  relation  between  heaven  and  earth,  the  light  god 
and  the  lower  world  he  rules.  The  swiftness  of  Iris  is  but  a 
representation  of  the  quickness  with  which  the  rainbow  appears 
and  disappears. 

In  IV  694  Iris  is  dismissed  from  Olympus  to  ease  the  dying 
pains  of  Dido,  by  Hera  (cf.  Ill  46). 

In  V  606  we  are  told  that  usually  Iris  is  sent  on  some  message 
of  discord  or  strife,  hence  her  name  is  derived  from  hhc  So 

also  and  even  more  strongly  in  IX  2. 

Her  epithet  Thaumantias  (IX  5)  has  two  possible  origins 
Either  as  the  poets  said,  as  daughter  of  Thaumas,  or  because  of 
the  wonder  which  the  beauty  of  her  colors  excited 

Iris  was  also  called  roscida  (exegesis  of  the  physici  I  quia  cum 
nubibus  est.  quae  rort    nan  carcnt 

41 


The  physici  also  explain  her  brilliant  and  various  colors  as  due 
to  the  shining  of  the  sun  against  the  rainshower. 

Iris  enim  nisi  e  regione  solis  non  fit,  cid  varios  colores  ilia  dat 
res,  quia  aqua  tenuis,  aer  lucidus  et  nubes  caligantes  inradiatd 
varios  creant  colores. 

PENATES. 

The  Dii  Penates  appear  to  have  been  the  spirits  who  guarded 
the  food  store  of  the  family,  and  so  the  word  is  derived  from 
penus,  the  stored-up  food. 

The  plural  form  has  given  rise  to  conjectures,  some  of  which  we 
shall  note  when  we  examine  what  Servius  has  to  say  of  the  pe- 
nates. 

Perhaps  the  suggestion  of  Warde  Fowler  that  the  spirits  were 
represented  in  the  plural  number  as  representing  the  variety  and 
multiplicity  of  kinds  of  food  in  the  family  storeroom,  is  as  good  as 
any  modern  suggestion. 

At  first  there  were  no  simulacra,  but  later  they  were  so  imaged 
to  the  worshipper.  The  goddess  Vesta  was  so  intimately  asso- 
ciated with  them  in  the  household  worship  that  some  have 
thought  of  her  as  of  their  number.  The  lares  were  generally 
named  with  the  penates,  and  later  on  there  seems  to  have  arisen 
a  confusion  which  practically  identified  the  two  sets  of  spirits. 

We  turn  to  our  examination  of  Servius. 

Servius  says  (I  378)  that  Vergil  followed  various  opinions  as 
to  the  penates.  Some,  as  Nigidius  and  Labeo,  say  that  the  pena- 
tes of  Aeneas  were  Neptune  and  Apollo.  Varro,  that  the  dii 
penates  were  certain  little  images  of  wood  or  marble  carried  by 
Aeneas  into  Italy.  Varro  also  says-  that  Dardanus  had  brought 
these  gods  from  Samothrace  into  Phrygia  and  thence  Aeneas  had 
transferred  them  to  Rome. 

Others,  as  Cassius  Hemina,  say  that  the  dii  penates  from  Sa- 
mothrace were  called   0eol  ueycftoi.    ©sol  owcctoi.    0£ol  iq^toy 

That  Vesta  was  always  worshipped  in  company  with  the  pe- 
nates is  stated  so  far  as  the  public  worship  was  concerned  in  1 
292,  where  we  are  further  told  that  some  say  that  the  penates 
are  those  gods  by  whose  aid  we  breathe  deeply  and  have  a  body 
and  possess  a  rational  soul:  that  they  are  Iuppiter  the  middle 
air,  Juno  the  lowest  air  with  the  earth,  Minerva  the  topmost  por-, 
tion  of  the  aether.  The  worship  of  these  deities  Tarquinius  son 
of  Demaratus  the  Corinthian  established  in  a  single  temple  under 

42 


one  roof.     They  were  the  great  gods.     And  to  them  Mercury  the 
messenger  and  interpreter  of  these  deities  was  added 

This  same  identification  of  the  great  gods  with  Jupiter,  Juno. 
Minerva  and  Mercurius  is  made  at  III  12;  but  here  the  identi- 
fication with  the  penates  is  denied  by  Servius,  though  affirmed  by 
Varro,  for  he  says  that  the  magni  dii  were  worshipped  at  Rome 
but  the  penates  at  Lanrolavinium,  whence  he  says  it  is  apparent 
that  these  two  classes  of  gods  are  not  one  (unum). 

Varro  and  others,  that  the  great  gods  were  two  images  of 
Castor  and  Pollux  in  Samolhrace  situated  before  the  gate,  to 
whom  people  saved  from  shipwreck  paid  their  vows,  alii  deos 
macjnos  Caelum  ei  Terrain  putant  ac  per  hoc  lovem  ct  lunonem 

These  among  other  reasons,  were  called  magni,  quod  de  La- 
vinio  bis  in  locum  suum  rcdierint :  quod  imperatorcs  in  provin- 
cias  ituri  apud  cos  primum  immolarint:  quod  eorum  nomina 
nemo  sciat:  quod  praesentissimi  scntiantur ;  nam  cum  ambae 
virgincs  in  templo  dcorum  Lavini  siniul  dormirent,  ca  quae  mi- 
nus casta  erat  fulmine  cxanimata  alteram  nihil  sensissc.  quos 
Romani  penitus  (possible  derivation  of  penates?)  in  cultu  ha- 
bent,  quos  nisi  saccrdoti  videre  fas  nulli  sit,  qui  ideo  penates* 
appcllantur,  quod  in  pcnctralibus  acdium  coli  soleant;  nam  et 
ipsum  penetral  penus  (the  modern  derivation  from  penus,  food 
store)  dicitur,  ut  ho  die  quo  que  penus  Vestae  claudi  vel  apcriri 
dicitur. 

Servius  tells  us  that  each  part  of  a  dwelling  was  consecrated 
to  a  god,  and  the  kitchen  to  the  penates  (IT  469)  and  that  the 
hearth  was  the  altar  of  the  penates  (XI  211). 

Furthermore  he  states  that  all  the  gods  who  were  worshipped 
in  the  house  were  di  penates  (II  514). 

It  would  appear  from  these  citations  that  Servius  was  not 
much  clearer  in  his  ideas  of  the  origin  of  these  gods  than  is  the 
modern  scholar. 

LARES. 

These  spirits,  like  the  penates,  were  involved  in  obscurity  as 
to  their  origin.  It  used  to  be  thought  that  they  were  the  spirits 
of  deceased  ancestors  who  had  to  be  propitiated  to  prevent  their 
doing  mischief.  Of  recent  years  this  idea  has  lost  hold  and 
they  are  conceived  to  have  been  the  spirits  who  protected  the 
arable   holding  of   the    family,   and    were   worshipped    in    small 

43 


buildings  erected  at  the  compita,  where  several  estates  met,  and 
which  were  open  to  each  estate  so  that  each  landholder  could 
worship  them  on  his  own  land. 

The  Lar  Familiaris  was  not  originally  a  house  deity,  but  ap- 
pears to  have  entered  the  house  from  the  fields,  possibly  through 
the  slaves  who,  since  they  ate  in  the  same  room  with  the  master 
but  at  lower  tables,  would  be  desirous  of  seeing  the  deity  of  the 
field  worshipped  in  company  with  the  penates,  the  genuine  house- 
hold gods. 

In  later  time  the  lares  and  penates  were  represented  by  small 
images,  sometimes  in  the  form  of  dancing  youths. 

There  were  also  public  lares  who  guarded  the  public  lands  and 
had  a  temple  where  they  were  worshipped. 

Servius  seems  to  favor  the  older  view  that  the  lares  were 
connected  with  the  worship  of  deceased  ancestors  (VI  154). 
omnes  in  suis  domibns  sepeliebantur,  unde  ortum  est  ut  lares 
colerentur  in  domibus. 

Likewise  he  here  differentiates  between  them  and  the  penates : 
unde  etiam  umbras  larvas  vocamus  a  laribus,  nam  dii  penates 
alii  sunt. 

Strangely  enough,  in  his  note  on  V  64  Servius  seems  to  make 
the  penates  also  to  have  the  same  connection  with  the  dead; 
sciendum  quia  etiam  domi  suae  sepeliebantur,  unde  orta  est  con- 
sueiudo  ut  dii  penates  colantur  in  domibus. 

THE  LOWER  WORLD. 

Servius  has  comparatively  little  to  say  of  the  deities  of  the 
lower  world.  He  identifies  Orcus  and  Pluto,  who  is  also  the 
Stygian  Iuppiter,  and  Pater  Dis. 

As  in  the  Greek  so  in  the  Roman  conception  Dis  or  Pluto  was 
rhe  god  of  the  gloomy  realms  of  the  dead,  and  Persephone  (Pro- 
serpina) was  his  wife,  they  occupying  relatively  the  positions  of 
love  and  Hera  in  the  lower  world,  though  they  were  never 
thought  of  as  so  vitally  personal,  but  rather  partook  of  that  shad- 
owy unsubstantially  which  belonged  to  the  dead. 

Yet  there  seems  to  have  been  a  favorable  side  to  Pluto,  as  he 
was  conceived  as  the  giver  of  wealth,  the  name  Dis  in  the  Latin 
possibly  connected  with  dives,  suggesting  the  same  idea. 

Orcus,  the  more  commonly  mentioned  god  of  death,  was  con- 
ceived of  as.  like  Hades,  the  king  of  terrors,  the  fearful  and 

44 


stealthy  toe,  always  on  track  of  his  intended  victim  and  ready  to 
strike  him  down.  And  yet  at  times  he  too  is  the  kindly  god 
who  brings  men  to  rest  after  their  earth  toil  and  trouble. 

i'erhaps  it  will  be  well  here  to  give  what  Servius  has  to  say 
of  the  whole  matter  of  the  state  of  the  dead. 

Orcus  is  Pluto  (VI  273),  and  Pluto  is  Iuppiter  Stygius  (IV 
638)  ;    another  clear  evidence  of  theocrasia  (cf.  Jupiter). 

In  VI  127,  according  to  the  reasoning  of  the  physici  and  with 
special  reference  to  Lucretius  the  position  is  taken  that  there 

lower  world  but  that  the  miseries  portrayed  take  place  in  one's 
lifetime. 

I  here  can  indeed  be  no  infernal  region  such  as  was  commonly 
believed  in  :   nam  locum  ipsorum  quern  possumus  diccre,  cum  sub 

ras  esse  dicantur  antipodes? 

NTor  does  the  solidity  of  the  earth  pernrt  of  the  infernal  region 
being  within  its  center,  nee  xevtoov  Tcrrae:  quae  si  in  medio 
mundi  est,  tanta  eius  esse  profunditas  non  potest,  ut  medio  sia 
bobcat  inferos,  in  quibus  esse  dicitur  Tartarus. 

Now  for  the  exegesis  of  the  physici :  ergo  hanc  terrain  in  que. 
i  limits  inferos  esse  volucrunt,  quia  est  omnium  circulorum  in- 
fima,  planctarum  scilicet  septcm,  Saturni,  Iovis,  Martis,  Solis. 
Veneris,  Mercurii,  Lunae,  ct  duorum  magnorum. 

The    Styx    is    called    novies,    because    novem  circulis  cingitw 

terra. 

The  escape  from  the  realm  of  shades  is  exceedineT    difficult 
pal,  ianua  Ditis  sed  rcvocare  gradam  super.:  vadere 

nd  auras  hoc  opus  hie  labor  est,  and   this  Servius   d  is 

either   said    poetically,    that    is   mythologically,   or   according 
the  deep  knowledge  of  the  philosophers  who  held  that  the  souls 
of  those   who  live   well  in   this  life  return   to  the  upper  >:re' 
that  is  to  their  place  of  origin,  while  those  who  live  wickedly, 
for  a  long  time  tarry  in  bodies  through  various  transnrgrations 
and  always  abide  in  the  lower  world 

The  descent  to  Hades  was  at  or  rather  through  the  Lake  of 
Uernus  (IV  512).     This  was  doubtless  chosen  a-  the  place  be 
cause  of   its  death  dealing  vapor*  ;    even   birr        I     mpting  to  fl) 
over  Avernus  wire  destroyed:  sane  hie  Incus  nharuin  den 

ntate  sic  ntur  ut  exhalaus  inde  per  angustias  aquae  sul 

phureae  odor  gravissimus  supervotantt  unde  ei 

.'-  r  tus  est,  quasi      tioovoc,.  *-\2 


Later  Julius  Caesar,  by  cutting  down  the  trees,  rendered  the 
region  free  from  this  pestilential  vapor. 

The  great  stream  of  the  lower  world  was  the  Styx,  over  which 
the  terrible  old  ferryman  Charon  carried  the  souls  in  his  skiff. 
Servius  describes  him  as  terribilis  sqaaloris,  and  derives  his  name 
xatd  dvTiqpQcxaiv    quasi  dxaiocov-    (VI  299). 

The  Styx  itself  was  a  tributary  of  Acheron  which  rose  from 
the  depths  of  Tartaros:  from  the  Styx  also  arose  Cocytos.  This 
is  mythology,  but  the  physici  have  their  own  exegesis:  nam 
physiologia  hoc  habet,  quia  qui  caret  gaudio  sine  dubio  tristis 
est.  tristitia  autem  vicina  luctui  esty  qui  procreatur  ex  morte: 
unde  haec  esse  apud  inferos  dicit.     VI  295 

In  VI  134  we  have  the  Styx  conceived  of  as  a  swamp.     The 
gods  did  not  dare  to  falsify  when  swearing  by  the  Styx,  because 
her  daughter  Victoria  had  aided  Zeus  in  the  war  with  the  giants, 
in  return  for  which  the  King  of  gods  decreed  that  when  the  gods 
swore  by  her  mother  they  should  not  dare  to  deceive.    Again  we 
have  the  explanation  of  the  physici :  Styx  maerorem  significat 
wide  xov  axvyegov,   id  est  a  tristitia  Styx  dicta  est.  dii  autem  laeU 
sunt  semper:  unde  etiam  immortales  quia  dqr&aoToi  xal  paxdoioi 
hoc  est  sine  morte  beati.    hi  ergo  quia  maerorem  non  sentiunt, 
mrant  per  rem  suae  naturae  contrarium,  id  est  tristitiam,  quae 
est  aeternitati  contraria.  ideo  iusiurandum  per  execrationem  ha- 
bent. 

The  same  exegesis  appears  again  in  VI  324. 
Souls  of  the  unburied,  that  is  the  unwept,  could  not  cross  the 
Styx.  Hence  the  throwing  of  even  a  little  dust  upon  a  corpse 
was  deemed  burial  (VI  325).  But  after  a  hundred  years  flitting 
about  the  shore,  they  might  cross  the  stream  to  the  desired  place 
of  purgation  that  they  might  enter  again  into  bodies. 

Here  we  arrive  upon  the  consideration  of  Lethe,  the  stream 
whose  waters  bring  oblivion,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  transmi- 
gration of  souls  which  Servins  derives  from  Plato  (VI  703  ff.), 
This  passage  is  an  important  elucidation  of  the  doctrine  men- 
tioned, that  is  of  metempsychosis.  Three  points  are  made :  that 
souls  can  return  into  bodies;  that  they  ought  to;  and  that  they 
may  wish  to  do  so, — which  Aeneas  in  the  passage  seems  to  have 
trouble  in  believing.  It  is  at  the  last  point  that  the  Lethean 
stream  plays  its  part,  for  drinking  its  waters  souls  forget  their 
past  life,  and  so  become  willing  to  re-enter  bodies  and  begin  over 

46 


again,  the  inference  being  that  they  would  otherwise  be  unwilling 
to  undergo  the  pains  and  sorrows  of  a  reincarnation. 

The  philosophers  interpret  Lethe  to  be  an  image  of  old  a 
because  the  memory  and  the  vital  forces  which  have  grown 
stronger  from  childhood  up  to  a  vigorous  old  age  (znrentem), 
with  a  too  extended  old  age  weaken,  and  memory  fails,  on  whose 
loss  death  intervenes  and  the  soul  passes  into  another  I  tody  . 
whence  it  is  that  poets  imagine  that  souls,  having  drunk  of  Lethe, 
return  into  the  body. 

Mence  Lethe  is  forgetfulne^s  (oblivio),  ever  neighbor  to 
death. 

In  VI  713  we  are  told  that  not  all  souls  suffer  reincarnation, 
tor  some,  on  account  of  their  previous  meritorious  life,  do  not 
return  into  bodies ;  some  return  because  of  an  evil  life  and  others 
by  a  necessity  of  fate. 

In  VI  724  Servius  goes  into  an  elaborate  discussion  of  the  na- 
ture of  the  soul,  showing  why  there  is  this  tendency  to  return 
to  bodies  on  the  part  of  the  souls  that  have  entered  the  lower 
world.  After  treating  of  the  origin  of  the  soul,  the  different 
characteristics  of  souls  as  influenced  by  the  confining  bodies,  the 
laying  aside  of  the  body  in  death,  and  the  requisite  purification 
from  the  taints  which  it  received  through  contact  with  the  body, 
that  each  soul  might  recover  its  own  splendor  {nitorem),  Ser- 
vius  very  appropriately  asks  how  a  soul  thus  in  possession  of  its 
original  nature  should  become  willing  to  undergo  reincarnation, 
and  finds  the  answer,  as  above,  in  the  drinking  of  the  waters  of 
Lethe.  I  1  have  dwelt  somewhat  at  length  upon  this  passage, 
because  it  is  worth  a  careful  study  by  all  who  really  wish  to 
understand  the  conception  of  the  soul  which  Servius  held  in 
common  with  others  of  his  own  school  of  thought.) 

The  representation  that  souls  are  purged  through  the  influence 
of  air,  fire  and  water,  is  interpreted  to  mean  that  in  tin-  course  of 
metempsychosis  the  souls  pass  into  bodies  of  creatures  which  live 
in  the  water,  or  since  fire  comes  from  the  earth,  on  the  land,  or 
m  the  air.  And  the  order  is  air,  water  and  fire  according  to  tin- 
degree  of  goodness  attained  by  the  soul  in  its  previous  life  This 
is  found  in  VI  741. 

In  VI  743  the  doctrine  of  the  genius  with  which  each  man  !-. 
born  and  under  the  influence  of  which  he  passes  through  life 
s  set  forth.  One  of  these  genii  inclines  us  to  the  good,  the  othei 
to  the  evil,  and  in  accordance  with  our  obedience  to  one  or  the 

\7 


other,  we  are  after  death  assigned  to  a  better  or  condemned  to 
an  inferior  life.  Through  them  we  either  win  freedom  (from 
reincarnation)  or  a  return  into  a  body. 

In  VI  745  we  have  the  doctrine  that  finally  all  souls  come  to  be 
re-embodied,  et  quaeritur  utrum  animae  per  apotheosin,  de  qui- 
bus  ait  'pauci  laeta  arva  tenemus'  possint  mereri  perpetuam  va- 
cationem.  quod  non  potest  fieri :  merentur  enim  temporis  multi, 
non  perpetuitatis,  et  quae  male  vixerunt  statim  redeunt,  quae 
melius,  tardius,  quae  optime,  diutissimo  tempore  sunt  cum  numi- 
nibus.  Paucae  tamen  sunt  quae  et  ipsae  exigent e  ratione,  licet 
tarde,  coguntur  reverti.  This  seems  to  harmonize  with  the  the- 
ory of  cycles,  that  the  universe' is  constantly  renewed  and  falling 
into  decay,  so  that  everything  which  has  happened  occurs  again 
when  its  proper  cycle  comes  round. 

Tartarus  (VI  135)  was  the  Deep  of  the  lower  world  (543), 
where  the  wicked  were  punished.     It  was  so-called  (577)  vel  quia 
omnia  illici  turbata  sunt  anb  t%  Taoax%      aut,  quod  est  melius 
dito  xov  TccQTaoi^Eiv    id  est  a  tremor  e  frig  oris;   sole  enim  caret 
From  Tartarus,  Acheron  (295)  took  its  rise. 

Elysium  is  the  place  where  the  pious  dwell  after  the  separa- 
tion of  soul  and  body  :  ergo  elysium  ctjto  t%  KiGEGog  ab  solu- 
tions The  poets  placed  it  in  the  midst  of  the  lower  world ;  but 
the  philosiphi  said  that  elysium  was  the  blessed  isles,  and  the 
theologi  located  it  about  the  lunar  circle,  where  the  air  is  clearer 
(purior)  (VI  404).  Erebus  was  the  place  where  the  souls  of 
the  good  were  delayed  until  purification,  for  they  could  not  enter 
Elysium  until  they  had  undergone  cleansing.  Erebus  was  also 
called  the  profunditas  inferorum  (IV  510). 

There  was  a  strange  notion  that  a  sort  of  ghost  double  (simu- 
lacrum) of  those  heroes  who  had  suffered  apotheosis,  e.g.  Her- 
cules, abode  in  the  lower  world  and  could  there  be  seen  (VI  134). 

In  VI  395,  VIII  297,  Cerberus,  the  horrible  watchdog  of  the 
lower  world,  is  explained  by  the  physici  as  really  the  earth,  which 
consumes  the  buried  bodies :  nam  indc  Cerberus  dictus  est  quasi 
HQ£o66oog. 

Perhaps  we  have  delayed  too  long  on  this  subject  but  it  seems 
an  essential  part  of  the  treatment  which  deals  with  so  vital  a 
(heme  as  the  life  after  death. 


4S 


CHAPTER  VI. 
HERCULES   (HERACLES). 

The  worship  of  the  Greek  god  Heracles  early  appeared  at 
Rome,  where  he  had  at  first  a  shrine  and  later  a  temple. 

Travellers  and  merchants  sought  his  protection  and  great  gen- 
erals like  Sulla  dedicated  to  him  a  portion  of  their  spoils  as 
Hercules  Victor. 

Our  author  gives  much  attention  to  this  hero  who  was  later 
deified. 

Hercules  was  the  son  of  Zeus  and  Alcmena,  the  wife  of  Am 
phitryo,  king  of  the  Thebans,  with  whom  Zeus  had  association 
in  the  absence  of  her  husband  on  war  duty.     His  half-brother, 
son  of  Amphitryo,  was  Iphitus  (VIII  103). 

Juno  .being  jealous  of  Alcmena,  sent  two  serpents  to  destroy 
the  infant  Hercules  (VIII  288)  ;  but  his  brother  Iphitus  falling 
out  of  the  cradle  through  terror  and  setting  up  a  wail,  the  par- 
ents, when  they  had  been  aroused,  found  the  child  Hercules 
strangling  the  serpents  which  had  been  sent  against  him  through 
the  hate  of  his  stepmother  Juno. 

This  was  but  a  prophecy  of  his  deeds  of  strength  and  valor, 
due  in  the  future  as  now  to  the  persistent  hatred  of  Juno  which 
never  ceased  to  load  him  with  toilsome  labors. 

In  addition  to  his  killing  of  the  Lernean  Hydra  and  the  Ne- 
mean  lion,  Servius  gives  a  full  legend  as  to  his  great  exploits — 1 
mean  the  labors  in  VIII  299:  praeter  haec  quae  Herculem  hoc 
loco  pocta  fecisse  memoravit,  alia  facta  Herculis  haec  sunt,  su- 
per atus  apcr  Erymanthius;  post  cerva;  item  Stymphalides  aves. 
quae  alumnae  Martis  fuisse  dicuntur.  quae  hoc  periculum  regi- 
onibus  inrogabant,  quod  cum  cssent  plurimae,  volantes  tantum 
plumarutn  dc  sc  emittebant,  ut  homines  et  animalia  necarent. 
agros  et  semina  omnia  cooperirent.  inde  ovilia  Elidensium  regis, 
quae  stercore  animalium  congesto  pestilentiam  tarn  suis  quam 
vicinis  rcgionibus  creaverant,  immisso  Alpheo  flumine  purgavit 
et  rcgionibus  salubritatc  rcddita,  ipsum  regem  negata  sibi  mer- 
cede  inter  emit,  inde  equos  Diomedis  Thracis,  qui  humanis  carni- 
bus  vescebantur,  abduxit.  inde  ad  Hippolytae  cingulum  peten- 
dum  perrexit  eamque  ablato  cingulo  superavit.  Ad  Geryonem 
autem,  sicut  iam  supra  (VII  662)  dictum  est,  navi  aenea  navt- 
gavit  tergo  Ironis  icltficans,  ibique  primum  canem.  Echidnae  fil 

49 


mm  peremit,  deinde  Eurytiona  pastorem,  Martis  filium,  novis- 
sime  Geryonem,  cuius  abduxit  armenta.  item  ad  Hesperidas 
perrexit,  et  Antaeum,  filium  Terrae,  victum  luctatione  necavit. 
(tide  in  Aegypto  Busiridem  necavit,  qui  advenientes  hospites 
immolare  consueverat.  post  Prometheum,  Iovis  imperio  in  Cnu- 
caso  Monte  religatum,  occisa  sagittis  aquila  liberavit.  Acheloum 
etiam  fiuvium,  qui  se  propter  Deianiram,  Oenei  filiam,  certando 
cum  Hercule  in  formas  varias  commutabat,  mutatum  in  taurum, 
avulso  ab  illo  cornu,  victoria  cedere  compulit.  Post  Lycum 
regem,  qui,  se  apud  inferos  constituto,  Megaram  uxorem  eius 
temptaverat  reversus  peremit;  propter  cuius  necem  Iuno  ei  insa- 
niam  misit^  ut  uxorem  necaret  et  filios.  qui  post,  recepta  sanitate, 
cum  expiationem  parricidii  ab  Apolline  petisset  nee  ab  eo  re- 
sponsa  meruisset,  ira  concitus  cortinam  ipsam  et  tripodem  Apol- 
linis  sustulit;  cb  quod  iratus  Iuppiter  eum  Omphalae  servire 
praecepit. 

His  death  and  apotheosis  Servius  gives  in  the  same  passage : 
cuius  finis  humanitatis  talis  fuit.  cum  Deianiram  coniugem  per 
fluvium,  in  quo  Nessus  Centaurus  commeantes  transvehebat, 
etiam  Hercules  transvehere  vellet,  ausus  est  Nessus  occulte  Deia- 
niram de  stupro  interpellare.  quod  cum  Hercules  agnovisset 
Nessum  peremit  sed  Nessus  moriens  Deianiram  monuit,  ut  san- 
quinem  suum  exceptum  servarct,  et  si  quando  advertisset  Hercu- 
lem  altera  femina  delectari,  sanguine  ipso  vestem  inlitam  marito 
darct,  per  quam  vindicari  posset,  sed  Deianira  cum  audisset 
maritum  Iolen,  Euryti  Oechaliensis  amare  filiam,  vestem  tinctam 
Nessi  sanguine  Lichae  servo  dedit  ad  eum  perferendam.  qui  cum 
Herculi  in  Oeta  occurrisset,  munus  uxoris  tradidit.  quam  cum 
tile  lovi  sacrificaturus  induisset,  tanto  corporis  ardore  correptus 
est,  ut  nop  invento  remedio  pyram  construi  iubcret  donatisque 
Philoctetae  sagittis  peteret  ab  eo  ut  cremaretur.  quo  facto  inter 
dcos  relatus  est. 

In  this  list  we  miss  the  dragging  of  Cerberus  to  the  light  of 
the  upper  world.  In  VI  395  he  refers  to  it  and  there  gives  an 
interesting  explanation  of  the  myth  in  arcordance  with  the  meth- 
ods of  the  physici :  quod  autem  dicitur  traxisse  ab  inferis  Cerbe- 
rum,  haec  ratio  est,  quia  omnes  cupiditates  et  cuncta  vitia  terrena 
eontempsit  et  domuit;  nam  Cerberus  terra  est,  id  est  consumptrix 
omnium  corporum.  unde  et  Cerberus  dictus,  est  quasi  uq£o66ooc;i 
id  est  cam  em  vorans... 

50 


In  this  same  passage  Servius  also  gives  a  ratio  for  putting 
the  number  of  Hercules'  labors  at  twelve,  though  he  actually  per- 
formed more,  viz.,  that  they  might  conform  to  the  twelve  signs 
of  the  zodiac. 

Very  naturally  Servius  follows  Vergil  in  his  interest  in  Her- 
cules as  to  the  hero's  later  exploits ;  that  is  he  touches  upon  those 
legends  which  relate  themselves  to  the  forbears  of  the  Romans. 

Hercules  delivered  Hesione,  the  daughter  of  Laomedon  king 
of  Troy,  from  a  sea  monster  to  whom  she  had  been  exposed  by 
her  father  as  a  result  of  an  incursion  of  the  sea,  which  Neptune 
and  Apollo  had  sent  upon  Troy  because  Laomedon  had  refused 
to  pay  the  money  pledged  to  those  deities  for  the  building  of  the 
walls.  Laomedon  also  refused  to  pay  to  Hercules  the  stipulated 
reward  for  saving  his  child,  whereupon  the  hero  slew  him,  and 
having  destroyed  Troy  gave  Hesione  to  his  companion  Telamon 
in  marriage,  from  whom  Teucer  was  sprung  (VIII  157). 

There  is  also  another  version  of  the  story  (I  619)  :  that  Her- 
cules, while  on  his  way  to  Colchis,  came  to  Troy  by  ship,  and 
when  Laomedon  sought  to  prevent  his  entering  the  harbor,  he 
killed  him  and  taking  Hesione  as  a  spoil  of  war  gave  her  to 
Telamon,  who  had  been  first  to  scale  the  walls  of  the  city  in  the 
attack.  Thereupon  Hercules  rescued  Priam  from  his  neighbor- 
ing foes  and  restored  him  to  the  throne  of  Troy,  whence  Priam 
received  his  name,  i.e.,  dbio  tov  Jtoiaoftai    id  est  emi. 

In  VII  291  we  are  told  that  the  reward  promised  by  Laomedon 
to  Hercules  for  the  rescue  of  Hesione  from  the  sea  monster  was 
the  horses  of  divine  stock  and  marriage  with  the  maiden.  In 
this  same  passage  our  author  tells  the  story  of  the  killing  of  king 
Eurytus  of  Oechalia  in  Euboea,  for  a  .suspected  amour  with 
whose  daughter  Iole,  he  was  to  meet  his  death. 

Hercules  had  won  a  contest  with  the  bow,  the  prize  of  which 
was  to  be  a  marriage  with  Iole.  This  he  was  denied  on  the  ad- 
vice of  the  son  of  Eurytus,  who  narrated  the  murder  of  Hercules' 
wife,  Megara,  and  her  children  in  a  fit  of  madness  sent  on  him 
by  Iuno.  As  usual  the  hero  destroys  the  city  and  slays  the  king 
and  possesses  himself  of  the  coveted  maiden. 

One  of  the  feats  recounted  of  Hercules  in  Italy  was  the  pro- 
duction of  Lake  Ciminus  by  a  deed  of  strength  (VII  697). 
While  on  his  way  back  from  Spain  the  hero  came  to  the  people 
dwelling  in  this  region.  They  one  and  all  urged  him  to  perform 
an  act  of  might.     Thereupon  he  fixed  in  the  earth  an  iron  bar 

51 


which  he  had  been  using.  No  one  was  able  to  pull  it  up.  Then 
he  was  asked  to  do  so,  and  upon  his  compliance  there  gushed 
forth  a  great  body  of  water  which  created  Lake  Ciminus. 

He  slew  also  the  giant  Cacus  who  seems  to  have  bt:en  origin- 
ally an  old  Roman  Fire  god  (VIII  203),  whose  worship  was 
supplanted  by  that  of  Hercules  at  Rome. 

Hercules  was  called  deus  communis  (VIII  275)  aut  quia 
Argivus  est  Hercules  et  supra  dixit  Aeneas  tarn  Graecos  quam 
Troianos  de  uno  sanguinis  fonte  descendere;  aut  communem 
deum  dixit  inter  deos  atque  homines;  unde  medius  fidius  dictus; 
aut  utriusque  naturae  medium,  id  est  inter  mortalitatem  et  divini- 
tatem.  sunt  enim  numina  aliqua  tanium  caelestia,  aliqua  tantum 
terrestria,  aliqua  media;  quos  deos  Apuleius  medioximos  vocat, 
hoc  est  qui  ex  hominibus  dii  fiunt. 

Alii  communem  deum  ideo  dictum  volunt,  quia  secundum 
pontificalem  ritum  idem  est  Hercules,  qui  et  Mars;  nam  et 
stellam  Chaldeis  dicentibus  unam  habere  dicuntur,  et  novimus 
Mart  em  communem  dici;  Cicero  'Martemque  communem  item 
paido  post  dat  salios  Herculi,  quos  Martis  esse  non  dubium  est. 
alii  'communem'  humanum,  beneficium,  (piAdvdocojtov-  unde 
et  communes  homines  dicimus.  Varro  dicit  deos  alios  esse  qui 
ab  initio  certi  et  sempiterni  sunt,  alios  qui  immortales  ex  homi- 
nibus facti  sunt;  et  de  his  ipsis  alios  esse  privatos,  alios  commu- 
nes, privatos  quos  unaquaeque  gens  colit,  ut  nos  Faunum,  The- 
bani  Amphiarum,  Lacedaemonii  Tyndareum;  communes  quos 
universi,  ut  Castorem  Pollucem  Liberum  Herculem. 

This  is  an  important  passage  as  illustrating  the  tendency  to 
theocrasia  in  the  identification  of  Mars  and  Hercules,  the  ap- 
peal to  the  mathematici,  the  Chaldei,  the  astrologers,  the  varied 
and  conflicting  authorities,  etc. 

In  VIII  301  we  have  another  explanation  of  the  epithet  Divus 
iidius :  hie  Divus  Fidius  solus  dicitur,  quod  solus  fidem  fecit 
(esse)  se  lovis  filium.  VERA  10 VIS  PROLES  nullus  enim 
humano  sanguine  procreatus  tauta  perficeret. 

Servius  gives  an  important  account  of  the  reception  of  Her- 
cules by  Evander  and  the  establishment  of  his  worship  in  Italy 
(  VIII  269)  :  Apud  majores  nostros  raro  advenae  suscipie- 
bantur,  nisi  haberent  itis  hospitii;  incertum  enim  erat  quo  animo 
venirent.  unde  etiam  Hercides  primo  non  est  ab  Evandro 
iusceptus;  postea  veto  cum  se  et  lovis  filium  dixisset  et  morte 
( 'act  virtutem  suam  probasset,  et  susceptus  et  pro  numine  habi- 

52 


tus  est.  denique  ara  est  ex  maxima  const ituta  quod  Her  cult 
Delphicus  Apollo  in  Italia  fore  praedixerat.  cum  ergo  de  suo 
armento  ad  sua  sacrificia  boves  dedisset,  inventi  sunt  duo  senes, 
vcl  tit  quid  am  tradunt  ab  Evandro  dati,  Pinarius  et  Potitins,  qui- 
bus  qualiter  se  coli  vcllet  ostendit,  scilicet  ut  mane  et  vespere  et 
sacrificaretur.  pcrfecto  itaque  matutino  sacrificio  cum  circa  soils 
occasum  essent  sacra  repetenda,  Potitins  prior  advenit,  Pinarius 
postea,  extis  tarn  redditis.  wide  iratus  Hercules  statuit  ut  Pina- 
iorum  familia  tantum  ministra  esset  epulantibus  Potitiis  et  com- 
plentibus  sacra :  wide  et  Pinarii  dicti  sunt  euro  xr\q  jreivac  id  est 
a  fame;  nam  senem  ilium  Pinarium  constat  alio  nomine  nuncu- 
patum.  hinc  est  quod  paulo  post  Potitii  tantum  facit  commemo- 
rationcm,  ut  ' primusque  Potitius  ibat.'  quod  autem  dicit  'domus 
Hcrculei  custos  Pinaria  sacri'  non  est  contrarium ;  nam  'custos' 
est  ministra,  ut  in  undecimo  (836)  at  'Triviae  custos  iamdudum 
in  montibus  Opis  alta  sedet,'  id  est  ministra.  Alii  'custos  Pinaria 
sacri'  dicunt,  quod  cum  ara  maxima  vicino  incendio  conflagra- 
ret,  a  Pinariis  liberata  sit.  et  ideo  'custos  sacri'  '  And  or'  verd 
Potitius'  quare?  nam  quod  sine  familia  Potitiorum  sacra  ista 
non  fiebant,  donee  illos  Appius  Claudius  corrupit  pecunia,  ut 
servos  publicos  hoc  sacrum  docerent,  propter  quod  dicitur  et 
ipse  mox  caecus  f actus  et  Potitorum  familia  intra  breve  tempus 
rxtincta. 

Another  explanation  follows  (VIII  270)  :  Quidam  tradunt 
ideo  Potitiis  ab  Hcrcule  sacra  commissa,  quod  cum  ipse  Hercu- 
les, rem  divinam  faciens,  preces  praecaneret  quas  Potitius,  diccret 
et  pro  eo  deo  cut  Hercules  rem  divinam  faciebat  ipsum  Herculcm 
fortuitu  invocasset  Potitius,  fertur  tunc  Herculcm  accepto  omine 
divinitatis,  rc-iccto  Pinario,  pcrpctuac  epulatibnis  sacrum  Potitio 
tradidisse  a  quo  videbatur  consecratus  ct  Potitios  dici,  quod  eorurn 
auctor  epulis  sacris  potitus  sit,  Pinarios,  quod  eis,  sicut  dictum  est. 
fames  epularum  sacrarum  indicta  sit :  hoc  enim  eis  Hercules 
dixisse  dicitur   v\iel<;  be  JteivdaeTE 

At  first  Hercules  had  only  an  altar  and  not  a  temple  (VIII 
179,  271).     The  altar  was  called  maxima,  either  because  of  its 
vast  size,  or  as  Servius  says,  alii  maximam  ideo  dicunt,  quia  illo 
tempore  omnibus  erat  honore  potior  quam  sibi  Hercules,  post 
quam  se  a  matre  Evandri  lovis  filium  esse  et  immortalem  futu 
rum  cognovit,  statuit. 

The  poplar  was  sacred  to  Hercules  (VIII  276),  who  made  a 
wreath  of  it   when  he  was  on  his  descent  to  the  lower  world  , 

53 


though  after  the  founding  of  the  city  those  who  ministered  at 
the  ara  maxima  were  crowned  with  laurel,  as  was  the  praetor 
urbanus,  who  sacrificed  according  to  the  Greek  ritus. 

A  fine  illustration  of  the  method  of  the  physici  is  seen  in  VI 
287  where  Hercules  is  represented  as  killing  the  Lernean  hydra : 
sed  constat  hydrant  locum  fuisse  evomentem  aquas,  vastantes 
vicinam  civitatem,  in  quo  uno  meatu  clauso  multi  erumpebant : 
quod  Hercules  videns  I  oca  ipsa  exussit  et  sic  aquae  clausit  mea- 
tus nam  hydra  ab  aqua  dicta  est. 

The  various  personages  bearing  the  name  of  Hercules  accord- 
ing to  their  localities  are  explained  from  the  fact  that  the  an- 
cients were  wont  to  call  men  of  great  strength  and  of  valiant 
achievements  "Hercules."  (VIII  564,  203). 

For  a  fuller  statement  of  the  visit  to  the  Hesperides  and  the 
robbery  of  the  golden  apples  see  VI  484  where  the  myth  is  thor- 
oughly explained  according  to  the  fashion  of  the  physici.  The 
Hesperides  are  shepherdesses  whose  sheep  [i\\la  are  driven* 
oft  by  Hercules  after  slaying  their  guard,  the  word  for  sheep 
being  confused  with  the  word  for  apples,  and  so  giving  rise  to 
the  story. 

AESCULAPIUS   (ASCLEPIUS). 

m 

He  was  the  son  of  Apollo  and  the  nymph  Coronis.  He  became 
the  god  of  healing  and  the  patron  of  physicians.  Zeus  slew  him 
because  he  brought  back  to  life  a  man  already  dead.  Afterward 
he  became  a  spiritual  deity  and  his  influence  was  more  widely 
extended,  passing  from  his  native  Thessaly  to  Epidaurus  and 
thence  extending  to  other  Greek  cities  and  finally  at  a  time  of 
great  pestilence  being  imported  to  Rome.  The  presence  of  the 
deity  was  symbolized  by  sacred  serpents  in  his  shrines  one  of 
which  was  brought  with  his  worship  to  Rome  and  placed  in  a 
temple  built  for  Asclepius  on  an  island  in  the  Tiber.  He  became 
famous  because  of  his  deeds  of  healing,  though  he  never  as- 
sumed importance  as  a  national  deity. 

In  VII  761  Servius  gives  us  the  story  of  his  birth  and  death 
Aesculapius  was  the  child  of  Apollo  and  Coronis  from  whose 
body  he  was  removed  after  his  father  had  slain  his  mother  in 
anger  because  of  her  infidelity  to  himself.  The  child  became  ex- 
pert (under  the  teaching  of  Chiron  the  centaur)  in  the  healing 
•art.  He  brought  to  life  Hippolytus  whom  his  father  had  slain 
because  of  a   false  charge  of  his  stepmother  Phaedra,  and   for 

54 


this  act  he  was  struck  dead  by  a  thunderbolt  of  Jove.     Compare 
also  VI  398. 

[n  X  316  there  seems  to  be  the  inference  that  because  Aescu- 
lapius had  been  born  by  what  we  now  know  as  the  Caesarian 
operation,  which  was  a  surgical  act  and  so  under  the  special  pro- 
tection of  Apollo  the  god  of  healing,  he  was  conceived  to  have 
been  the  son  of  the  god. 

ROMULUS  ET  REMUS. 

They  were  the  two  brothers,  twins,  sons  of  the  vestal  Ilia  and 
Mars,  who  both  sought  the  honor  of  founding  Rome,  and  became 
involved  in  a  quarrel  in  which  Remus  lost  his  life,  and  as  a 
result  of  which  Romulus  became  the  sole  founder  and  ruler  of 
the  new  state. 

Servius  has  the  legend  in  full  and  we  shall  permit  his  version 
its  rightful  place. 

In  1-273  this  is  the  story:  Amulius  and  Numitor  were  broth- 
ers. Amulius  drove  his  brother  out  of  the  kingdom  of  Alba 
Longa  and  slew  his  son,  his  daughter  Ilia  he  made  a  priestess  of 
Vesta,  that  he  might  take  away  from  her  any  expectation  of 
issue,  by  whom  he  had  learned  he  might  be  punished  for  his 
wickedness.  But  many  say  that  Mars  embraced  her  and  that 
she  had  twin  sons,  Remus  and  Romus,  as  a  result,  whom  with 
their  mother  the  wicked  Amulius  ordered  cast  into  the  Tiber. 
Some  say  it  was  Anio  who  married  Ilia,  others  Tiberis.  Thus 
the  Tiber  was  called  uxorius  amnis.  The  boys,  Faustus  the 
shepherd  discovered  and  his  wife  lately  a  harlot,  Accia  of  Lau- 
:  Mitum  brought  them  up.  They,  after  they  had  slain  Amulius, 
recalled  their  own  grandfather  Numitor  to  the  throne.  When 
Alba  seemed  insufficient  to  maintain  three  rulers  the  young  men 
withdrew  and,  having  resorted  to  augury,  founded  the  city  of 
Rome. 

Remus  saw  six  vultures  first,  Romus  afterward  saw  twelve ; 
which  fact  brought  on  a  quarrel,  in  which  Remus  was  slain  and 
the  people  were  called  Romans  from  the  name  of  Romus.  The 
name  Romulus  was  given  to  Romus  as  a  species  of  flattery,  since 
the  diminutive  was  expressive  of  that  feeling.  That  they  were 
-aid  to  have  been  nourished  by  a  she-wolf  was  a  fable  invented 
to  conceal  the  baseness  of  the  authors  of  the  Roman  race ;  nor 
was  it  out  of  harmony  with  reason  since  the  Romans  called  har- 
lots she-wolves.    Then  follow  several  differing  accounts     Clinias 

55 


states  that  a  daughter  of  Telemachus,  Romes  by  name,  had  been 
married  to  Aeneas  from  whose  name  Rome  was  called.  It  is  said 
that  Latinus  named  Rome  from  Romes,  his  own  sister,  who  had 
died. 

Perhaps  it  is  necessary  to  cite  no  further  traditions,  though 
there  are  more  given  as  to  the  naming  of  the  city,  since  it  is 
not  a  question  immediately  touching  mythology. 

The  Sibylla  ita  dicit —  'Ptojiaioi,  'Poauov  jkxiSec; 

In  VI  777  the  same  story  is  told  with  the  exception  that  Ilia 
is  there  made  a  daughter  of  Aeneas. 

After  the  death  of  Remus,  a  pestilence  broke  out,  whence,  the 
oracle  having  been  consulted,  declared  that  his  manes  must  be 
pacified.  On  this  account  a  curule  chair,  with  sceptre  and 
crown  and  the  other  insignia  of  kingly  power  used  to  be 
placed  near  to  Romulus  when  he  was  making  any  decree., 
that  the  two  brothers  might  appear  to  be  exercising  the  royal 
power  equally  (I  276,  VI  779).  In  the  latter  passage  the  old 
story  that  Remus  was  killed  because  of  a  quarrel  over  the  walls 
is  pronounced  a  fable.  In  VIII  635  we  have  the  legend  of  the 
rape  of  the  Sabine  maidens,  which  does  not  concern  us  in  this 
connection. 

The  apotheosis  of  Romulus  is  suggested  in  VI  780:  merito 
virtutis  Mars  Romulum  deum  esse  significat.  (Compare  Livy 
I   16.  also  I  40,  where  he  is  called  deis  prognatus.  deus  ipse.) 


56 


CHAPTER  VII 

Thus  tar  we  trust  we  have  covered  with  a  fair  degree  of  thor- 
oughness the  subject  of  this  thesis,  with  the  limitations  set  forth 
in  the  introduction.  There  are,  however,  two  or  three  matters 
upon  which  we  ought  to  touch  in  this  closing  chapter. 

First,  the  Cumaean  Sibyl,  while  she  is  not  a  mythological 
figure  who  became  an  object  of  worship,  is  nevertheless  of 
great  importance  when  viewed  in  the  light  of  the  religious  hopes 
and  aspirations  of  the  Roman  people;  for  the  Sibylline  books 
were  made  the  objects  of  special  care  by  the  appointment  of  an 
ever-growing  commission  of  patrician  men,  as  we  shall  see, 
whose  business  it  was  to  guard  them  religiously  and  to  consult 
them  at  any  time  of  crisis,  upon  order  of  the  senate. 

Secondly,  the  Parcae  or  Fates,  while  they  seem  to  have  had 
no  cultus,  were  nevertheless  among  those  religious  conceptions 
which  must  have  been  almost  daily  in  the  thought  of  men,  who, 
like  ourselves,  facing  the  dark,  mysterious  and  often  seemingly 
contradictory  events  of  human  experience,  could  hardly  help 
questioning  and  seeking  some  rational  explanation  for  a  world 
so  constituted. 

As  we  have  said  at  the  start  we  did  not  purpose  to  give  a 
full  account  of  all  the  myths  found  in  Servius'  treatment;  but 
it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  name  for  the  convenience  of  stu- 
dents several  of  the  most  important  of  them,  which  have  received 
extended  notice  from  our  author. 

Thus:    Orion,  I  535,  X  763.    Orpheus,  VI  119;    VI  645  very 
fully     Theseus  and  the  Minotaur,  VI  21,  14  very  fully.    Perseus 
and    Medusa    VI    289.     Phaethon,    V    105;    X    89    very    fully 
Scylla,  111  420  fully.    Pollux,  VI  120. 

Here  follows  the  discussion  of  the  Sibyl  and  the  Parcae 

There  was  at  first  only  one  Sibyl ;   later,  the  Greeks  conceived 
i  as  many  as  ten.     These  Sibyllae  were  women  who  were  in- 
spired by  Apollo  with  the  gift  of  prophecy.    We  turn  at  once  to 
Servius ;    f cr  the  Sibyl  played  a  prominent  part  in  the  religious 
history  of  Rome. 

In  HI  445  we  are  told  that  sibyl  is  an  appellative  and  not  a 
proper  noun.    So  that  Varro  has  written  of  a  number  of  sibyls 
Moreover   every   girl   who   had   received    the  divine  inspiration 
within  her  heart  (literally  the  numen)  was  called  a  sibyl. 

The  etymology  is  interesting  as  Servius  gives  it      nam  Ae.nli* 

57 


oiovq  dicunt  deos,  |@ou)o)  autem  est  sententia .  ergo  Sibyllas 
quasi  axov  BouA&g  dixerunt.  All  the  responses  of  the  Sibyl 
were  contained  in  a  hundred  utterances  (sermonibus)  more  or 
less. 

Servius  says  that  many  follow  Vergil  in  believing  that  the  fata 
Romana  were  written  down  by  the  Cumaean  Sibyl,  who  was  very 
long  lived,  but  who,  he  thinks,  could  hardly  have  survived  to  the 
time  of  the  Tarquin  to  whom  the  Sibylline  Books  were  offered 

Varro  was  led  to  the  belief  that  the  fata  Romana  were  due 
to  Erythraea,  because  after  the  burning  of  the  temple  of  Apollo 
in  which  they  had  been  deposited,  the  very  verses  themselves 
were  discovered  in  the  island  of  Erythrae  (VI  36). 

According  to  VI  72  it  was  an  old  woman  by  the  name  Amal- 
thea,  who  offered  the  nine  sibylline  books  to  Tarquin  for  an  im- 
mense price,  and  when  he  refused  went  away.  After  burning 
three  she  returned,  offering  the  six  remaining  volumes  at  the  old 
price.  Again  Tarquin  rejected  her  offer;  again  she  departed, 
and  later,  came  back,  this  time  with  only  three,  offering  them  at 
the  original  price.  The  king,  moved  by  curiosity  at  her  persist- 
ence in  maintaining  the  price  unchanged,  at  last  yielded,  and  the 
Books  came  into  the  possessi  >n  of  the  Roman  state. 

At  first  two  men  of  patrician  rank  were  made  custodians  of 
these  priceless  prophecies,  later  ten  and  then  fifteen,  the  quinde- 
cimviri  sacris  faciundis,  until  the  time  of  Sulla.  Afterward  the 
number  rose  until  it  reached  even  sixty,  but  the  old  name  quin- 
decimviri  remained  (VI  73). 

In  VI  321  Servius  appears  to  identify  the  Cumaean  Sibyl  with 
Varro's  Erythraea.  According  to  the  legend  as  here  set  forth, 
the  god  Apollo  loved  the  Sibyl  with  a  tender  love  and  gave  her 
the  choice  of  asking  what  she  would.  She,  letting  sand  slip 
through  her  fingers  or  fall  from  her  hand,  asked  that  she  might 
have  as  long  a  life  as  there  were  sand  grains  (so  I  understand 
it).  Apollo  answered  that  it  should  be  so  on  condition  that 
she  leave  Erythraea,  the  island  on  which  she  dwelt,  and  never  see 
it  again.  She  went  to  Cumae  and  dwelt  there.  After  a  long 
time  her  bodily  powers  passed  away  and  she  retained  life  in  her 
voice  alone.  When  the  citizens  of  Cumae  saw  that,  moved  either 
by  hostility  or  pity,  they  sent  her  a  letter  sealed,  according  to 
ancient  custom,  with  clay.  When  she  saw  it,  since  the  clay  was 
from  her  island,  she  melted  away  in  death.  Because,  as  above, 
the  verses  were  restored  from  this  island  after  their  loss  by  the 

58 


burning  of  the  temple  of  Apollo,  some  concluded  that  she  was 
the  sibyl  who  wrote  the  Roman  fates. 

While  strictly  speaking  the  Sibyl  did  not  become  an  object  of 
worship  she  played  so  great  a  part  in  the  religion  of  the  Romans 
that  this  thesis  would  hardly  seem  complete  without  this  refer- 
ence to  her. 

The  Romans  through  a  mistaken  etymology  identified  their 
Parcae  with  the  Greek  Moirae,  as  though  Parcae  were  from  pars. 
The  truth  seems  to  be  that  there  was  originally  one  Parca  (as 
there  was  one  Moira)  and  that  she  was  a  birth  goddess.  Cf.  Gel- 
lius  quoting  Varro  III  16,  10:  Nam  'Parca'  inquit,,  imnmtata 
una  littera,  a  pariu  nominata.  Though  Gellius  says  there  were 
three  fata  and  that  their  names  were  Parca,  Nona  and  Decima, 
the  latter  two  referring  to  the  months  of  gestation. 

In  the  Greek  conception  at  first  there  was  only  one  Moira,  later 
Hesiod  introduced  the  three  sisters,  Clotho,  Lachesis  and  Atro- 
pos.  Sometimes  even  the  gods  appear  to  be  under  the  domain 
of  fate,  while  at  others  the  will  of  Zeus  seems  to  be  all  controll- 
ing. 

Wissowa  says  that  the  fates  never  really  had  a  place  in  the 
Roman  religion  but  that  the  idea  remained  rather  poetical  or  phil- 
osophical. 

Servius  says  little  about  the  fates  as  genuine  persons,  but  in 
lVr  609  he  has  a  lengthy  discussion  where  he  seems  to  conceive 
of  them  philosophically  as  the  inexorable  laws  controlling  men, 
rather  than  as  personalities. 

In  I  22  he  gives  the  number  as  three  and  with  their  Greek 
names:  one  he  says  speaks  .another  writes  and  the  third  draws 
out  the  threads  of  life.  He  derives  the  name  Parcae  not  from 
pars,  or  partus,  as  did  Varro,  but  xcura  avtupoaaiv  quod  nulh 
parcant,  sicut  lucus  a  non  luccndo,  helium  a  nulla  re  bclla.  His 
full  discussion  of  the  fata  appears  in  IV  696.  Here  he  discusses 
the  two  sorts  of  fate:  the  fatum  drenuntiativum,  and  the  fatum 
condlcionale.  The  former  was  the  fate  which  was  pronounced 
.is  in  every  way  certain,  and  so  not  to  be  avoided.  The  latter 
was  a  fate  which,  as  the  adjective  implies,  was  conditional,  and 
which  so  might  be  conceived  of  as  avoidable.  Servius  quotes 
several  examples.  Thus  Achilles'  fate  was  'condlcionale'  since  he 
chose  to  remain  before  Troy  rather  than  to  return  home  to  an 
inglorious  destiny,  though  he  was  perfectly  well  aware  that  his 

59 


late  was  to  be  short  lived  if  he  tarried  in  the  war.  So  a  man 
might  die  before  his  appointed  day,  his  fatum  condicionale  mak- 
ing it  possible  for  him  to  die,  so  to  speak,  before  his  time.  And 
yet  even  thus  he  dies  not  without  fate  since,  as  Servius  says  in 
speaking  of  the  death  of  Achilles :  obiit  quidem  ante  diem  fato 
statutum,  sed  nee  turn  sine  fato,  quia  de  gemina  fati  auctoritate 
veniebat  utraque  condicio. 

This  passage  is  a  fine  illustration  of  the  statement  of  Wissowa 
quoted  above  that  the  Roman  interest  in  fate  is  rather  philo- 
sophical than  religious. 

In  XI  843  we  have  a  comment  of  Servius  which  points  to  the 
idea  that  even  the  gods  were  subjected  to  fate;    where  he  says 
that  contrary  to  the  fates  nee  numinis  opitulatur  auxilium.    The 
same  thought  appears  again  in  XII  147:   sane  latenter  ostendit 
favorem  numinum  concessione  fatorum  non  posse  procedere. 


H\ 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION. 

If  we  have  after  this  careful  study  of  Servius  been  able  to 
see  through  his  eyes,  to  catch  a  closer  vision  of  the  matters  with 
which  he  deals,  to  feel  ourselves  in  actual  possession  of  some  of 
the  treasures  of  knowledge  which  he  has  had  to  offer,  the  time 
and  pains  required  will  have  been  well  spent  indeed. 

Reverting  to  the  statements  made  concerning  his  person  and 
his  method,  as  we  set  them  forth  in  the  early  chapters,  we  can  but 
feel  that  they  were  under  rather  than  above  the  truth. 

Servius'  scholarship  and  care  remind  us  of  the  diligence  of 
men  trained  to  German  methods  of  investigation ;  though,  un- 
fortunately, he  was  unacquainted  with  critical  methods,  which, 
had  he  possessed  them,  would  have  proved  of  high  value  to  him 
and  to  us,  in  seeking  the  clearing  up  of  some  most  perplexing 
problems. 

However,  to  the  student  of  Vergil  he  remains  the  master  in- 
terpreter upon  whose  foundations  his  successors  have  been  glad 
to  build. 

We  have  in  this  commentary,  as  has  already  been  suggested, 
not  the  work  of  a  great  and  enthusiastic  scholar  alone,  but  the 
revelation  of  a  noble  soul,  believer  though  he  remained  in  the 
old  pagan  faith.  While  we  possess  little  material  for  a  life  of 
Servius  we  cannot  but  be  impressed  by  his  earnest  effort  to  set 
his  faith  in  its  best  light ;  for  thus  we  may  understand  his  at- 
tempts to  rationalize  the  old  myths  and  hero  tales,  that  they 
might  be  made  more  palatable  to  earnest  souls  who  thought 
deeply  upon  religion. 

We  cannot  claim  infallibility;  but  we  trust  that  the  spirit  and 
contribution  of  the  great  grammaticus  to  the  study  of  Rome's 
religion,  as  far  as  the  objects  of  her  worship  are  concerned,  have 
in  the  main  been  faithfully  presented  here. 

It  has  been  a  long  and  exacting  task,  because  the  work  of  Thilo 
has  never,  as  yet,  seen  a  published  index,  and  each  investigator 
must  read  the  entire  commentary  and  make  such  an  index  of 
his  own.  This  the  present  writer  has  done,  and  the  teaching  of 
the  great  commentator  has  been  gleaned  from  his  hundreds  of 

61 


pages,  and  is  here  presented  to  the  reader  in  the  hope  that  it 
may  be  of  some  little  service  in  interpreting  the  great  Epic,  which 
became  in  the  days  of  Augustus  and  still  remains  the  chief  text- 
book of  the  youthful  student  in  his  approach  to  the  study  of 
Roman  poetry. 

And  we  might  justly  add,  "More's  the  pity,  that  so  beautiful 
and  profound  a  poem  should  be  relegated  to  a  period  of  study, 
which,  because  of  the  immaturity  of  the  pupils,  forbids  its  just 
appreciation  with  respect  either  to  its  art  or  subject-matter." 


62 


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